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Intelligence, etc.

Hi, voska.

You said:

No I don't think it was bad intelligence. Everything out there said IRAQ didn't have WMD. Why do you think most of the world opposed the invasion on those grounds. This sounds more like no intelligence.

We know Iraq had WMD at one point, for two simple reasons:

1) For whatever reason, we gave Iraq WMDs to fight Iran.

2) Iraq (predictably) used them, both against Iran and against the Kurds.

What's really at issue isn't whether or not Iraq had WMDs, but whether or not they destroyed them all, as they were required to do by Resolution 1441. The Iraqis under Hussein never did get around to verifying that they didn't have WMDs, so you get what we got.

The process for verification of compliance was rather simple, and was laid out for the Iraqis for 12 years. The fact that they didn't comply shows they couldn't comply, because they had something to hide. (e.g., there are tapes of Iraqis in the military talking to each other about what to do about the inspectors, and what to hide, etc. That was the one part of Powell's presentation that actually had resonnance.)

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying the U.S. did a bang-up job in the invasion. There were clearly mistakes made, like letting enemy soldiers drop their guns and run away, and bowing to political pressure not to hit back hard at insurgent strongholds like Fallujah.

I do agree that the WMD issue wasn't the one they should have gone with, though. The administration made a decision that that was the thing that would have the most traction at the U.N. It should have been just a simple matter of, "This is what the ceasefire stipulated the Iraqis do. They're not doing it. Therefore, the ceasefire is over." If the U.S. had done that, some 500,000 Iraqis would still be alive today. Instead, both Bush Sr. and Clinton imposed grossly immoral sanctions on Iraq which did nothing but starved people.

Sometimes war isn't the worst thing you can do.

Posted by: bhartman36   Posted on: 12/21/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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