It was also after this debate that Kristol became a NeverTrumper. Kristol LOVES the Iraq War, and HATES anybody who questions it or any other one of our endless wars.
MAGA
Remember it was the “intelligence community” that told us there were WMDs in Iraq - even though UN inspectors on the ground couldn’t find any.
For the past three years, the “intelligence community” has been telling us Trump is in cahoots with the Russians.
I’m not going to be burned twice by these deepstaters.
I think alot of people that vote Republican started to really coalesce around this time to the fact that Republicans were do nothing scum. And just to get the facts straight, the first excuse for invasion was violation of the northern no fly zone. When that didnt fly with the French or the U.N. they pivoted to WMD’s. When they found none it became purple fingers in the air and we’re bringing democracy to the Middle East. Bush was every bit as bad as Obama.
The only good thing to come out of that entire mess was my pay check for 7 years.....
>> It’s worth remembering that Trump was the first GOP politican with the guts to speak out against the Bush-Cheney Iraq war.
I supported the initiative, and have untold respect for those & their families that made the sacrifices few are willing to make. And to this day, I believe the deployment was absolutely necessary. Trump’s opinion of the early action is irrelevant.
Be careful about pissing on the Iraq effort. Your name might show up in favor of the engagement.
I have no idea what the truth about the WMDs, but wasn’t part of the deal, Saddam had to make Iran think he had them at the very least?
So much polical captial was spent on the Iraq war. Was it finishing something Bush felt his father left undone, was it based on the intel, was it removing a bad guy?
This idea from the NeoCons, there has to be a war, always, at every time, blah. GW is one thing, the Never Trumnpers who oppose Trump is a different thing.
Trump had three big things: against endless wars, the influx of people not part of this country and bad trade deals. The rest of the GOPers running for the nom couldn’t counter those messages.
The failure to respond effectively to this blood libel was probably the greatest single mistake by GWB and his entire administration. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, the entire national security leadership of the Clinton administration, and the entire Democrat leadership in Congress had said exactly the same thing as did GWB, because they were all getting exactly the same intelligence briefing. And EVERY serious intelligence service in the world was saying the same thing as well.
There was a terrific montage of Democrats speaking on Saddam's WMDs that circulated at the time; perhaps someone can find and post it. Why Bush didn't defend himself in partisan terms on this, I will never understand. Karl Rove was one of the masterminds on political strategy, and even Rove admitted years later that the failure to punch back was a major error. Trump parroting the blood libel was indefensible. Trump gets too much of his information from Twitter and is an easy mark for fake news. If something fits his rhetorical needs of the moment, he picks it up and uses it without vetting the source.
Trump is lying.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html
ya know, 10 to 15 years ago, we were all over this with threads of weapons found, all the time.
people here have short memories
even VERITAS posted translations of WMD conversations of the Iraqis
What separated George Bush from myself was the treatment of NSA George Tenant. He was the one insisting Iraq had WMD and he was disastrously wrong. Worse, he did not know the situation on the ground and worse still, he did not know he did not know. INTELL malpractice, period.
His punishment? The MEDAL OF FREEDOM. America's highest award. IMHO, he should be rotting in Leavenworth's.
I had backed George Bush because I foolishly thought a successful businessman with an MBA would have balls to fire poor performers. Nope.
The fact Trump has hired and fired so many top officials is music to my ears.
Perform you powdered princes, or be gone!
My woman who was a Sgt Major in the Army is all messed up because of that useless war.
SO, no-one remembers the stocks of poison gas? No-one remembers the buried RDX stores and the centrifuges? No-one remembers the stocks of yellow-cake?
WTF!!!
We have images from satellites and high altitude aircraft of long lines of trucks from Iraqi weapons facilities loading up and hauling a lot of stuff to facilities in Syria. Facilities guarded by Iraqi troops in Syria.
David Kay reported Hussein was developing missiles with ranges in excess of UN limitations, saying they were the center pole of the tent under which Hussein would rebuild his WMD as the regime sanctions further deteriorated. He found Hussein retained the scientists and technology to restart production of mustard and VX gas. Hussein was also currently developing an indigenous precursor for VX and a stimulant for freeze-drying anthrax. Kay reported Hussein was rebuilding infrastructure and staff for nuclear weapons. Mahdi Obeidi maintained in the New York Times that when the world looked the other way, the knowledge of hundreds of scientists could be applied to existing designs and a centrifuge prototype to jumpstart the nuclear weapons capacity. Iraq already had 500 tons of yellow cake in the country under U.N. seal, which was confirmed to have no meaning after the North Korean experience. The regime just needed a latter-day Albert Speer or Leslie Groves to replace Hussein Kamel.
The idea Hussein did not have stockpiles of WMD’s was never a creditable assumption. One has to believe that a fracturing, middle eastern dictatorship of several competing and self-interested spheres of influence achieved an unparalleled intelligence deception. The sophisticated intelligence services of U.S.A., Britain, France, Israel, and Germany had independently determined Iraq had stockpiles of WMD. These intelligence professionals applied different methods, used different resources, jealously guarded their insights and prerogatives, and refused to parrot someone else’s analysis.
As an example, the Butler Commission maintained the analysis by the UK Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) that Hussein’s people went to Niger to acquire uranium was creditable. The SIS followed classical methods of validation, analysis, and assessment of several different sources, not including the famous forgeries, to conclude that Saddam Hussein sought significant quantities of uranium. George Bush used this professional intelligence product to claim in his State of the Union message that Iraqi officials had gone to Africa on that mission.
Examine the CIA Fact Book for Niger exports, and you will see uranium is the only business reason Iraqi officials would have in the country. Basic common sense tells you no totalitarian regime would allow key officials the latitude to just collect a few local crafts while vacationing in other countries. In opposition we only have the childish claims of Joe Wilson whose State Department training left him completely unqualified in terms of tradecraft to make an intelligence assessment.
All five intelligence services were not wrong. The most reasonable assumption, for which much evidence exists, is that Syria and Russia received inventories for the regime. By the way, is not anyone curious about how Syria got all those chemical weapons they had to dispose of? Again, one can see from the CIA Fact Book, Syria does not have industries that can be adapted to their production.
The possession of WMD was irrelevant, because the ceasefire ended, and the war begun in 1991 was resumed, because Hussein behaved in material breach of international obligations as reaffirmed with Resolution 1441. Nowhere in Congressional resolutions of 1991, 1998 and 2002, or U.N. Resolutions 678, 687 and 1441 can one see possession of stockpiles of WMD as reasons for confronting him with military action. Behavior in terms of threats, evasion, intimidation, and past behavior, not possession, was always the key. He was to unconditionally accept destruction or removal of all inventories and programs for WMD and for all missiles over 150-kilometre range. He was enjoined from committing, supporting, or providing safe haven for international terrorism.
Resolution 687 incorporated 678 and 19 previous resolutions without amendment and offered Hussein a conditional ceasefire in 1991. The resolution’s key words were to guarantee, reaffirm, accept, submit, declare, yield, forgo, agree, inform, comply, and cooperate. None of these resolutions were cobbled together like a middle schooler’s term paper. Diplomats and politicians laboriously parsed each phrase for clear focus on actions instead of possessions; behaviors, not stockpiles.
Hussein thwarted the program envisioned by menacing, eluding, and deceiving inspectors. The U.N. resorted to surveillance, analysis, and investigation to destroy material and disrupt programs. He also continued forbidden involvement in international terrorism. In response, Bush #1, UN, and Clinton ignored their responsibilities to deal with Hussein’s ongoing material breaches. When Clinton was President, Hussein in 1998 even expelled the inspectors turned investigators.
UN precedent from the Korean War provided for the intended invasion of Iraq and could have been blocked by either China or Russia. The war against Saddam Hussein was resumed because Bush #2 finally obeyed UN and confirming Congressional mandates. The invasion completed UN direction to “restore international peace and security in the area” and forced the UN to confront the reason for its’ existence.
UN Security Council Resolution 678 http://www.javier-leon-diaz.com/humanitarianIssues/Resolution678.pdf
UN Security Council Resolution 687 http://fas.org/news/un/iraq/sres/sres0687.htm
Korean War Resolution 84 (1950) of 7 July 1950 http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3b00f1e85c.html
W Bush was so bad as president that Trump is still running against him. W a Republican Charter.