I have no interest here in debating the myriad issues about our handling/mishandling of the Iraq intervention over so many years. There are many criticisms to be made and hard judgment calls to be debated. 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing. But "lied us into war." No.
The intelligence community, the national security team in the Bush administration, and the bipartisan leadership, foreign affairs, intelligence, and armed services committees in Congress all unanimously believed that Saddam had, if not operational nukes, at least the requisites of a fast restart of his program, as well as plenty of materials sufficient for a dirty bomb. And chemical weapons. Which could be in the hands of terrorist groups at any time.
Why did they all believe this? Because they were all getting exactly the same assessment from the intelligence community, which said the assessment was a "slam dunk."
Virtually every other major country with serious intelligence capabilities in the region, as well as all the relevant regional powers, thought the same thing. Whatever his true capabilities may have been, Saddam himself was working hard to convince the world of the worst. He succeeded. But he miscalculated. Bill Clinton was no longer in charge. Saddam didn't realize that this new president might actually take action.
George Bush and Dick Cheney said NOTHING about Saddam and weapons of mass destruction that Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and the entire senior national security figures of the Clinton era hadn't been saying for years. The Clinton era national security people had all gotten the same briefings.
A acquaintance of mine was very highly situated on the White House national security team. He never breathed a word about his work, as was proper. But I do know that for six months after 9/11, his days started at 4:00 a.m. because he had to prepare for the 6:00 a.m. situation reports when the principals got their more leisurely start on the day. The only thing he ever said was that people at that level were waking and checking in each morning, wondering if we had lost a city overnight.
Saddam was one of the principals of the global terrorist network. The bad guys operated in the shadows for operational surprise and the camouflage responsibilities, but collectively, they crossed the Rubicon on 9/11. And the universal assessment was that Saddam had at least the capability for dirty bombs, and maybe more, as well as chemical weapons.
The democrats who had spent the Clinton years attesting to Saddam's weapons of mass destruction did a complete 180 turn, popped everything they themselves for years down the memory hole, and began a high intensity big lie campaign directed at GWB. They did this almost in unison. One would almost think they were in collusion on the big lie. The liberal media played along. One would almost think the media was corrupt and evil. This was probably the greatest act of -- well, I'll call it treason -- in American history. It fully equals and probably exceeds the soft coup instigated against Donald Trump.
MTG is a cretin.
I have no interest here in debating the myriad issues about our handling/mishandling of the Iraq intervention...
...then you published a 300 word essay about that very topic.
Kinda like; “Don’t you dare reply to my opinions, but I’m going to tell you MY opinions”.
::Nipper the RCA dog curious head swivel::
This is an absolutely great post. Nice to see there are some actual conservatives left. Screw MTG, but she is following the lead of her hero, DJT. He is the reason the blood libel of the left is welcome in the Republican party. He is a proven liar. He supported war with Iraq. He talked about the wmds. He can go straight to hell.
Anyone who starts with the “you lied us into the war” blood libel should be shunned. MTG here disqualifies herself from being taken seriously.
I have no interest here in debating the myriad issues about our handling/mishandling of the Iraq intervention over so many years. There are many criticisms to be made and hard judgment calls to be debated. 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing. But “lied us into war.” No.
The intelligence community, the national security team in the Bush administration, and the bipartisan leadership, foreign affairs, intelligence, and armed services committees in Congress all unanimously believed that Saddam had, if not operational nukes, at least the requisites of a fast restart of his program, as well as plenty of materials sufficient for a dirty bomb. And chemical weapons. Which could be in the hands of terrorist groups at any time.
Why did they all believe this? Because they were all getting exactly the same assessment from the intelligence community, which said the assessment was a “slam dunk.”
Virtually every other major country with serious intelligence capabilities in the region, as well as all the relevant regional powers, thought the same thing. Whatever his true capabilities may have been, Saddam himself was working hard to convince the world of the worst. He succeeded. But he miscalculated. Bill Clinton was no longer in charge. Saddam didn’t realize that this new president might actually take action.
George Bush and Dick Cheney said NOTHING about Saddam and weapons of mass destruction that Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and the entire senior national security figures of the Clinton era hadn’t been saying for years. The Clinton era national security people had all gotten the same briefings.
A acquaintance of mine was very highly situated on the White House national security team. He never breathed a word about his work, as was proper. But I do know that for six months after 9/11, his days started at 4:00 a.m. because he had to prepare for the 6:00 a.m. situation reports when the principals got their more leisurely start on the day. The only thing he ever said was that people at that level were waking and checking in each morning, wondering if we had lost a city overnight.
Saddam was one of the principals of the global terrorist network. The bad guys operated in the shadows for operational surprise and the camouflage responsibilities, but collectively, they crossed the Rubicon on 9/11. And the universal assessment was that Saddam had at least the capability for dirty bombs, and maybe more, as well as chemical weapons.
The democrats who had spent the Clinton years attesting to Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction did a complete 180 turn, popped everything they themselves for years down the memory hole, and began a high intensity big lie campaign directed at GWB. They did this almost in unison. One would almost think they were in collusion on the big lie. The liberal media played along. One would almost think the media was corrupt and evil. This was probably the greatest act of — well, I’ll call it treason — in American history. It fully equals and probably exceeds the soft coup instigated against Donald Trump.
*******************************
Thank you. I remember it was a very scary time.
Weren't these the same @ssholes who all believed that Trump was a Russian operative?