Bombshell: Declassified memo proves the pentagon had zero evidence of wmds in iraq (Colin Powell, house of representatives)

[Ralph_Kirk]

Originally Posted by carterstamp

He was the freaking POTUS, if he didn't know, he damned well should have. The uncomfortable truth was, he didn't want to know.

As one Army Colonel has said, "PowerPoint makes us stupid." In some cases, adequate understanding of a situation for proper policy and decision making cannot be conveyed in bullet format--leaders have to dig in and read the detailed analyses. That certainly ought to be true before committing forces to war.


We haven't had a president willing to do that since Carter (with the exception of the elder Bush).

[Ralph_Kirk]

Originally Posted by Hyperthetic

Saddam was just demonstrating his unwillingness to use them.

Not against fellow Sunnis, for sure. That was a sibling squabble.

[LS Jaun]

Originally Posted by Caleb Longstreet

Sooooooo, the poison gas doesn't count??? Just curious.....

Probably not, but you could ask the Syrians where they got theirs from?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2GPTqxf8rE

[Ralph_Kirk]

Originally Posted by LS Jaun

"Could the Democrats in good faith go after Bush for this while at the same time voting for Hillary who knew of this report BEFORE she VOTED FOR the war?"

There is no indication even President Bush knew of this report. Certainly nobody outside the Executive Branch did.

[KRAMERCAT]

Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk

There is no indication even President Bush knew of this report. Certainly nobody outside the Executive Branch did.

Give Bush a break - he didn't even know the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni - so his ignorance is his best defense.

[Old Gringo]

Oh, come on, now!

We knew darn well that Saddam had "wmds."

The leftovers from what Reagan sold him in the 80s.

[Dane_in_LA]

Originally Posted by Caleb Longstreet

Sooooooo, the poison gas doesn't count??? Just curious.....

Do the pre-1991, mostly unfireable, remnants of a past program count as evidence of the GWB administration's pre-war claims? No. Unless there's a speech somewhere talking about the necessity of getting rid of Iraq's rusty, unusable shells that pose a danger for EOD crews.

There was no military WMD capacity. And no programs to build one. That doesn't mean there was a lack of chemical junk to clean up.

[Ralph_Kirk]

Originally Posted by Dane_in_LA

There was no military WMD capacity. And no programs to build one.

Well, inasmuch as they hadn't destroyed all the documentation and killed all the scientists, they did--technically speaking--have a "program." The program just wasn't achieving any results.


They were doing as much as they could to retain expertise for future reconstitution--that's what they were hiding from the UN inspectors.


But I'd also speculate that Saddam was led by his subordinates to overestimate his WMD capability as much as President Bush was led by his own subordinates to overestimate that capability.

[godofthunder9010]

This isn't news and it certainly isn't a bombshell. It's more or less what we already new: There was a whole lot of "smoke" so everybody assumed there was a fire. The French, the British, the Russians and the USA all believed that Saddam Hussein absolutely did have WMD's. Democrat and Republican members of Congress that looked at the evidence all unanimously agreed as well. That's why they all voted for it. It seems that Saddam himself thought he had them. That's why he was always acting like he had something to hide in the decade leading up to the US led invasion. What we know now: His scientists were scamming Saddam. They were telling him they were making progress, knowing full well that Saddam couldn't actually verify it. They took the money and ran. Like you're source pointed out, they were 90% sure that Saddam was hiding WMD's.

Turns out Saddam had squat. Everybody was fooled. I don't think we should have invaded mind you, but the excuse for invasion seemed absolutely certain to everyone, Saddam included. Gotta give the Iraqi scientists their due for pulling off one of the most successful scams in modern history.

PS: Technically, it's proven that Saddam Hussein really did have WMD's. He used chemical weapons on the Iranians and the Kurds. This is a well-documented fact. But what we were really looking for was nuclear weapons, not chemical. I'd still like to know where that chemical weapons stockpile went. We know it existed, so where did it go?

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by godofthunder9010

Everybody was fooled.

I am curious if any polls were taken on how many Americans believed Bush? My feeling is that the majority of us were not fooled! We were too busy thinking oil and money!