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To: Trumpinator

I read your link. First, I really don’t know if WMD went to Syria. But some premises at the link are flawed.

The author makes an assumption that Saddam wouldn’t sent anything to Syria, because Assad is buddy with Iran. Well...during Desert Storm, Hussein had his fighter aircraft fly to Iran itself. So his logic ignores reality.

The author also makes a presumption than Iraq and Syria were foes. Not entirely true. I read a fascinating book title The High Cost of Peace, written by an Israeli, and really meant to be about Clinton’s desperate attempt to get a ‘peace deal’ before he left office, in a quest for a Nobel Peace Prize. But along the way, the author paints a picture of the middle east in the late 1990’s. And he claims that Saddam (with no air force of his own after the first Gulf War) was holding joint military exercises, in western Iraq, with Syria’s air force. In particular, Saddam’s son Uday, and Assad’s son (the one in power now) had become BFFs, and were holding these exercises. So there was some level of cooperation - and this shifting loyalty thing is an aspect of the middle east that we in the west tend to overlook.

The author at your link also seems to put great faith in the international inspections. But what was happening in the last two years of Clinton’s presidency? We saw it on the news constantly - inspector would show up someplace, and be stonewalled and denied access. And Clinton would do nothing. Wash/rinse/repeat. The inspections were meaningless at the end. That’s the whole darned reason Bush used wmd as justification. He demanded unfettered inspections to resume, and Saddam refused, until the 11th hour.

Again, I obviously have no proof wmd made it to Syria. But the author doesn’t provide any useful information on the subject either. A couple of Iraqi generals and ‘unnamed’ US intelligence sources have made the claim though, and I think it is a distinct possibility, rising above the level of mere BS.


25 posted on 01/06/2016 8:34:05 AM PST by lacrew
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To: lacrew

At the end of the day why are we speculating. Bush stated he was wrong on Saddam and WMD. I thought that would put an end to the speculation myself.


26 posted on 01/06/2016 8:37:37 AM PST by Trumpinator (I regret I have but only one vote to give for Trump for my country.)
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