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The liberation of Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom) was justified after all, not that I ever had any doubts. Not only did we free their people and put an end to genocide, but we also found chemical weapons and it turns out that Saddam Hussein was working on a WMD program after all.
After spending 1,400 man-years on investigating. Oh, and it was released by that hotbed of liberal anti-warfare agitators known as the State Department - more precisely, the CIA.
Duelfer admittedly didn't complete a thorough investigation.
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It pains me to be hard on Charles Duelfer. A smart and dedicated civil servant with vast experience in Iraq, he at least had an understandable reason for wrapping up his investigation into Iraq’s WMD programs: Osama bin Laden’s man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was trying to blow him up. Dr. Duelfer told London’s Independent in April of this year that a car bomb set by Zarqawi’s men “tried to get me and my follow car. Two of my guards were killed and one was badly wounded. My hearing's not been right since." This was the unofficial reason that Duelfer’s Iraq Survey Group had to “cut short” its concluding look into the transfer of WMD material to Syria. His predecessor, Dr. David Kay, resigned in protest because CentCom was repeatedly transferring away members of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) team in order to deal with terrorism.
These aren’t exactly ideal working conditions. Duelfer and Kay had other problems as well: Zarqawi and the ex-Baathist terrorists were also killing off as many Iraqi scientists as they could.
What believers in the WMD theory seem to miss is that if a person found a teaspoon of anthrax or mustard, that one could say, yes I found WMD's in Iraq and this would be true.
What was promoted to the American people however was not a tea spoon or an unusable shell left over from Desert Storm, or the bombs and materials that were created after our invasion. The Bush administration said repeatedly that they knew there were WMD's there and not just a teaspoon or a 105mm shell, but stockpiles. A direct quote by Rumsfeld.
We the American people were told we were in imminent danger of attack from a country that both Powell and Cheney had both stated was contained and would be a quagmire to engage with only a very short period before. We were told stories about how if we did not act there would be mushroom clouds over American cities.
The entire narrative of the Bush administration was that if America didn't invade immediate, we as a nation would be in utter peril and would end up suffering from another 9-11 type attack. Because Saddam and Al Qaeda we were told were working together to build a nuclear bomb
Now you can hash over each tiny technical detail and you can swim through the sea of double speak and ambiguous content, but at the end of the day the Bush administration sold the American people a war that did not need to be fought under false pretenses, period.
I realize people don't want to believe this because in doing so comes the realization that their government lied to them and that they believed it and thus were fooled. The stories of being misled by evidence was a steaming pile of bovine excrement as well and whether or not anyone cares to admit, most know deep down that they were lied to and thousands of Americans died in the sands of a country they never need to be in.
To this day, not one single member of the Bush administration has been held accountable for the massive failures in intelligence and action that resulted in 9-11, or accountable for their actions to progress a war based upon lies, innuendo and sold through fear.
What believers in the WMD theory seem to miss is that if a person found a teaspoon of anthrax or mustard, that one could say, yes I found WMD's in Iraq and this would be true.
What was promoted to the American people however was not a tea spoon or an unusable shell left over from Desert Storm, or the bombs and materials that were created after our invasion. The Bush administration said repeatedly that they knew there were WMD's there and not just a teaspoon or a 105mm shell, but stockpiles. A direct quote by Rumsfeld.
Did you miss the attack on Duelfer's life? The fact that he cut short his investigation because of it? That doesn't happen over 'a teaspoon' or 'a 105mm shell.'
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We the American people were told we were in imminent danger of attack from a country that both Powell and Cheney had both stated was contained and would be a quagmire to engage with only a very short period before. We were told stories about how if we did not act there would be mushroom clouds over American cities.
Bullsh*t. We were told exactly what Clinton et al had also said.
Duelfer admittedly didn't complete a thorough investigation.
I hope you're not conflating two things here. The main report was released on September 30th. The attack that had him cut short an additional investigation was in November.
Frontpage. Sorry, but that's not a source of record. I held my nose and clicked the link, and was met with wall-to-wall speculation, ending in the ever-popular "Syria" daydream, a scenario that has exactly zero to support itself. Tough noogie, but it may be time to own up to the fact that there's no there there.
Why would they attempt to kill Duelfer and kill off those Iraqi scientists if they had nothing to hide?
Why indeed, with the country being so safe for Americans otherwise? And who is "they"? At the time of the attack on Duelfer's convoy, Saddam Hussein had been in custody for almost two years and the Ba'ath party was in shambles. Conventional wisdom puts the attack at Sarqavi's feet - is the hypothesis that Saddam somehow slipped him the key to the WMD storerooms? Because, weirdly enough, a guy like Zarqavi - who wasn't picky about his methods - utterly failed to use any sort of WMD.
You just won't admit you've been duped by a manipulative, totally fraudulent meme.
I didn't believe it when Clinton said it either, primarily due to lack of credible evidence.
Again, you are missing the over all here. The political leadership of this country told its people we were in imminent danger, be that Clinton, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Santa Clause, Jesus Christ, or the magical frog in the enchanted forest, accusations, speculation and innuendo do not equate to empirical evidence on a level that should be required to take an entire nation to war.
We were told they did exist, they knew where they were, that there were stockpiles of these things, and that if America didn't act, it would face grave and imminent danger that could end in mushroom clouds.
Had 9-11 not have happened, the Iraq war would have never have happened because the standard of evidence that would be required by the rest of the world, our Congress, and our people would have been far greater if they weren't in a state of absolute fear.
It was fear that was used to promote these things, it was fear that allowed a group of ideologically driven think tank flunkies to take this nation to war. As far as how the evidence was managed, do not forget one very important thing that took place, the Office of Special Plans or OSP, under Dick Cheney.
I would direct you to the PNAC website(also referenced in the above diagram), the one that had a lengthy article I believe posted in 1999 about being able to employ a strategy of nation toppling in the event of another "Pearl Harbor Event". They got their wish three years later. In the PNAC which still to this day has in their opening paragraph one of the most audacious statements
Again, I understand people do not wish to come to terms with the idea that their government deceived them in order to embark on an ideological crusade to change the face of the Middle East into one in which we desired it to be. It will be remembered by history as the greatest blunder of foreign policy ever committed by this country. It will be forever a stain and all the rationalization brought to bear through the cognitive dissonance this creates won't matter one bit.
I hope you're not conflating two things here. The main report was released on September 30th. The attack that had him cut short an additional investigation was in November.
...And the war continued on after both, and WMDs continued to be found in Iraq after both.
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