Posted on 02/15/2016 1:35:17 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
[Huge SNIP]
Thus, by 2003, President George W. Bush had correctly calculated that Saddam's WMD arsenal, after at least five years of no inspections, was an intolerable, unacceptable risk in the wake of 9/11.
This was a fully legitimate fear, with Bush's suspicion of Saddam's stockpiles first informed not by his advisers but, instead, by the media that informed all of us in the 1990s, years before Bush became president.
In short, all of that very recent history was forgotten by an emotional, angry, childish political left after our troops didn't find the WMD stockpiles we all expected.
Of course, we did discover some WMDs in Iraq after 2003 (everyone forgets this), and chief inspector David Kay found both Iraqi infrastructure and intent to ramp up WMD production once Saddam later figured he was in the clear. We did not, however, find the WMD stockpiles we expected.
That said, the argument that George W. Bush deliberately lied about WMDs is not only extraordinarily unfair but stunningly misinformed and nonsensical.
Sure, Donald Trump can generally argue that going into Iraq was ill-advised, and that "we destabilized" the larger Middle East region. "George Bush made a mistake," said Trump in the South Carolina debate. "We should have never been in Iraq."
That's a legitimate point of contention. Fair enough - though Trump better not exclude Obama's prematurely pulling troops from Iraq from that equation. That, more than anything else, enabled the rise of ISIS.
But Trump charging that Bush lied on WMDs is outrageous. He should clarify it, apologize for it, or admit that he did not speak as precisely as he should have.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
"Just this week, a CIA leak confirmed that there are several hours of tape-recorded surveillance of Saddam bragging that he had these weapons and planned to use them against Israel and the U.S. We know that Saddam had WMDs at one time."
Funny how so many of the 2013 thru 2016 sign-ups are siding with Code Pink, International ANSWER and the rest of that crowd...
Good this issue is being revisited.
Bush’s declaration to action concerned the potential for eminent threat. End of story.
Regarding Trump on this matter, he’s an idiot. Nonetheless, the better of all idiots 2016...
Cruz and/or Trump 2016
I think there were two reasons for Iraq:
1- secure wmd’s
2- strategic and tactical positioning of U.S. power....for a hundred great reasons.
That the weapons were moved to Lebanon and buried, put them in a secure place. But the other reason for going-in was far more important.
Bush and friends did a very good thing,
knowing the weapons were no longer in-country. It was simply necessary for world peace and stability. I give G.W. credit for foresight.
Too bad Baraq o’Bama screwed up and pulled us out. The region went boink.
Trump....I like him....he has my vote: but he’s either plain wrong about Iraq, or strategerizin’ for Sanders’ idiots....knowing the actual truth.
Cuz now the whole thing is moot, anyway.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33082-2004May17.html
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4997808/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/bomb-said-holddeadly-sarin-gas-explodes-iraq/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/05/17/sarin-mustard-gas-discovered-separately-in-iraq.html
Kinda hard for a sarin ied to be found if Iraq didn’t have any, don’t you think?
Which just might explain some of why Russia is involved keeping Assad in power, and close to the situation to monitor if ISIS has found or deployed them.
“It just kills people”
http://www.britannica.com/technology/weapon-of-mass-destruction
“weapon with the capacity to inflict death and destruction on such a massive scale and so indiscriminately that its very presence in the hands of a hostile power can be considered a grievous threat. “
Gee, it says “death”, not just destruction.
The NY Times of Oct 14, 2014
That’s all you need. They found a LOT of chemical weapons.
love to see the left defend Bush to go after Trump
Ditto neutron bombs, weaponized anthrax, and VX, but I think they all count.
Chemical weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction. The commonly accepted definition of WMD is nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons.
After they first, themselves, denied that sarin or mustard was found at all.
See links I posted in this thread.
We did find wmd, we should have crowed about it but didn’t.
Presenting the material which would have justified the assertion might have compromised HUMINT assets, technological capabilities, or both. There are sometimes valid reasons for not disclosing how you know what you know, and couching that information in more vague and intuitive terms rather than as absolute sourced information.
anything they found was all old degrading crap left over from the Iran /Iraq war era.. that’s not why we were told we needed to invade Iraq.. you are making my point
.. where were all the loading cars,, the factories that were building the weapons. the nuclear bomb parts, the underground facilities to make the stuff? NOT THERE.. it was all bullshit
Duh. Correction: The Bekaa (Beqaa) Valley is in Lebanon, not Syria.
Not so.
The Polish contingent found a green band artillery shell.
And the sarin ied was a binary mix in flight of a type Iraq was not known to possess prior to 1995.
And, again, the claim they were “old” doesn’t matter.
They existed.
Period.
Saddam was missing only one more ingredient to succeed in his quest for WMDs. That ingredient was obama.
oh please Bush never once came to the American people and said we found their WMDs we told you they had and the reason we started the war.. or did you see a press conference or Bush speech that I missed where he said it?
One cannot both claim the wmd did not exist and they were old.
Either they existed or they didn’t.
And since our troops were but with a sarin ied, and several mustard ieds, I’m leaning towards, “yup, that’s real.”
Post 25.
Sarin and mustard found.
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