Yale prof confirms what all should have known: Bush did not lie about WMD. (Iran, Iraq)

[wutitiz]

George W. Bush did not knowingly lie about WMDs in Iraq | Other voices - The News Tribune

A good op-ed by a Yale prof who also does a column for Bloomberg News. He confirms what any reasonably intelligent person not suffering from a derangement syndrome should already know: there were no "lies about WMD" from the Bush admin. He cites a book by Brit journalist Gordon Corera for his evidence:

Originally Posted by Stephen Carter

Corera has combed available public sources, both official investigations and various memoirs, and added to it his own reporting, most of it from anonymous intelligence sources. His ironic conclusion: “Everyone, including the spies, was convinced by the intelligence that said Saddam had the weapons,” he writes. Yet “they were not sure it looked strong enough to win the argument.”
By everyone, Corera means everyone. As he reminds us, even Hans Blix, the chief United Nations arms inspector before the war, believed that Saddam Hussein had hidden weapons of mass destruction

As I have posted before, even Saddam's own senior officers believed it. It was all a consequence of Saddam's 'deterrence by doubt' strategy which was mainly intended to cow the Iranians. Saddam confirmed this in interrogations after being captured.

Originally Posted by Stephen Carter

Saddam’s penchant for secrecy only made matters worse: “Every [Iraqi] general knew he did not have the special weapons but thought his counterpart down the road did.”.

I believe that the "Bush lied, thousands died" meme will be remembered by historians as one of the biggest idiocies of US politics ever. Maybe even more worrisome that the meme itself was the fact that it was so widely embraced by so many Americans. There is doubtlessl a large percentage of the population, maybe even a majority, who still believe it. If a large number of people in a democratically-run nation can be persuaded of a stupid and easily disproven proposition, that nation is in trouble.

[michiganmoon]

There was a PBS documentary that also came to the conclusion that Bush did not lie and there was evidence suggesting that Saddam had the weapons. They claimed that the intelligence would feed Bush what he wanted to hear and leave out evidence to the contrary...as one officer said something to the effect of "we wanted to be liked by Bush" ....one might blame Bush though for having that kind of culture among those advising him.

[Statutory Ape]

The thing that bothers me is why is that question important?

The real deceit comes with making something of it.

We gave Iraq all of its, weapons of mass destruction.

The question is why did we go to war with Iraq?

Unless, Saddam's announcement that Iraq would sell oil in euros only was the true "weapon of mass destruction".

[Huckleberry3911948]

gosh i dont know but we invaded a country one million people died, and we did not find a single WMD.
been there ever since 10 years later.

[michiganmoon]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

gosh i dont know but we invaded a country one million people died, and we did not find a single WMD.
been there ever since 10 years later.

Define WMD.

Do chemical weapons that Saddam used to kill Kurds count as a WMD?

P.S. I agree with your general premise that we shouldn't have went in to Iraq.

[Statutory Ape]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

gosh i dont know but we invaded a country one million people died, and we did not find a single WMD.
been there ever since 10 years later.

Well, I don't think we found any euros there, either.

But if we were to have gone . . .

[Statutory Ape]

Originally Posted by michiganmoon

Define WMD.

Do chemical weapons that Saddam used to kill Kurds count as a WMD?

Not if he got them from the U.S.

[TrapperJohn]

So you guys are still worried about the justification of a war based on WMD's that everyone knows he had but not worried about unjustified drone strikes on American citizens. That makes sense.

[Marshall Gibson LP]

Originally Posted by wutitiz

I believe that the "Bush lied, thousands died" meme will be remembered by historians as one of the biggest idiocies of US politics ever. Maybe even more worrisome that the meme itself was the fact that it was so widely embraced by so many Americans. There is doubtlessl a large percentage of the population, maybe even a majority, who still believe it. If a large number of people in a democratically-run nation can be persuaded of a stupid and easily disproven proposition, that nation is in trouble.

I believe history will regard the asinine waste of life, treasure and worldwide goodwill of that war in an ever increasing level of infamy that it will eventually converge with Vietnam as our country's greatest foreign policy blunders.

It did get W reelected, but when the cost is considered, it was a gigantic pooch-screw.

[wutitiz]

Originally Posted by TrapperJohn

So you guys are still worried about the justification of a war based on WMD's that everyone knows he had but not worried about unjustified drone strikes on American citizens. That makes sense.

The Yale prof talks about that very point towards the end of his piece. He says that Pres. Obama appears to be completely missing the lessons that should have been learned from the intel debacles the led up to the Iraq war. Maybe Pres. Obama and the US left did not learn the lessons they should have because they were too busy spinning fantastical memes like "Bush lied, thousands died."