We’ve heard it again and again. President Bush went to war on trumped-up threats of Saddam’s WMD. Look at the results, none was ever found. It didn’t exist. Bush lied, Americans died. Certainly as an emotional slogan it has had traction.
Embracing it requires quite a few suspensions, however.
You would have to ignore the intelligence estimates of not only the US, but the Brits, French, Chinese, Russians and a lot of others. They might have been inaccurate, but they certainly were unanimous enough to lead to reasonable conclusions.
You would have to ignore the fact that WMD is more than nuclear weapons. It is also chemical and biological. While nukes are hard to hide, chemical weapons tend to be binary; individually benign compounds which only become deadly when combined. And biological threats are incredibly small in the quantity required to be devastating in effect.
You would have to ignore that Saddam had a vigorous nuclear program as far back as the ‘80s when Israel preemptively destroyed his reactor at Osirak.
What was That?
You would also need to ignore Saddam’s well documented possession and use of chemical agents in his own domestic war against the Kurds and in the protracted Iraq/Iran conflict. Seems doubtful that a 20 year quest for increased WMDs would be abandoned by any self-respecting megalomaniac.
You would have to ignore the litany of causes beyond WMD that were annunciated in the justification speeches before the UN leading up to the war. It wasn’t simply WMD; it was a range of issues. The issues were compelling enough for a 15-0 vote of the Security Council.
You would have to ignore the discovery of binary artillery shells in ammo dumps after the war.
And, this week you would have to ignore this:
Under-reported Yellowcake Moved
Yep, a mere 550 metric tons of yellowcake that we finally moved out of Iraq. Wonder what Saddam was planning with that? Maybe radium dial wristwatch production on a large scale? Watch out Timex.
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