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In reply to the discussion: Hans Blix on the terrible mistake of the Iraq war. [View all]stupidicus
(2,570 posts)25. http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/yellowcake.asp
there's wmd, and then there's wmd.
In evaluating who believed what individually or country-wise prior to the reintroduction of inspectors as a result of UNSC res 1441 (which came a month after the Iraq AUMF) it's critically important to determine specifically what they believed, given that the likelihood of the war being sold absent any nuclear threat from them were practically nil. Another "Desert Fox" maybe, but a full scale invasion and occupation? I think not.
DEBATEDISTORTED: THEINFLATION OF THENUCLEAR THREAT As former intelligence analyst and National Security Council staffer Kenneth M.Pollack has argued, Iraqs alleged nuclear program was the real linchpin of the BushAdministrations case for an invasion.41Indeed, a recent scholarly study found that manymembers of Congress gave the nuclear threat as the main or one of the main reasons for their votes supporting the war resolution in October 2002.42Yet, it now seems virtuallycertain that the administration publicly exaggerated the status of the Iraqi nuclear program.Officials also strategically manipulated their pre-war rhetoric about the Iraqi threat so as tomislead the general public and mass media. This often meant, for instance, blurring certainkinds of policy distinctions that would otherwise have suggested greater caution in the pathway to war. In many cases, moreover, it meant emphasizing the strong certainty rather than the real ambiguity about key evidence and thus implying the worst about the Iraqi threat. http://www.academia.edu/881665/Deliberating_Preventive_War_The_Strange_Case_of_Iraqs_Disappearing_Nuclear_Threat
CLINTON: Good evening.http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/12/16/transcripts/clinton.html
Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces. Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors.
For example, there are reasons for this comment on the part of Blix "While I never believed Saddam could have concealed a continued nuclear program, I too thought there could still be some biological and chemical weapons left from Iraq's war with Iran.", which pretty much mirrors the pov of many if not most of us that opposed the war.
In the effort to give individual dems the Pontius Pilate water in terms of their roles prior to and in the wake of UNSC res 1441, and the countries "that believed" as well, an examination of the evidence in support of the potential for an active nuke program alone is the only thing that really matters, not whether they thought he had leftovers from earlier days, or indeed, was keeping biological/chemical stockpiles fresh in some measure.
The real history, according to the president, is that Iraq was a threat that had to be confronted in a post-Sept. 11 world, and that both parties accepted the administration's case for war. One key element of that case was the suggestion that Saddam Hussein had or would soon have the deadliest weapons imaginable.
In the fall and winter of 2002, the president and other top administration officials used stark language to help Americans imagine the dangers. "Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud," Mr. Bush said in his State of the Union address in January 2003.Two months later, then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice used the very same words to describe the threat. And Vice President Dick Cheney publicly alleged that Saddam Hussein "has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons."
Critics Unimpressed by White House Claims
Outside the administration, there was widespread belief that Iraq possessed biological and chemical weapons, but less confidence on the nuclear question. The U.S. intelligence community was deeply divided over the issue. And, despite months of searching, U.N. inspectors both before and after the invasion failed to find any weapons of mass destruction.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5024408
Any commentary by dems prior to or in the wake of UNSC res 1441 that voiced a level of certainty rivaling that of Bush's on the nuke weapons programs (like bombing nuclear program facilities that didn't exist as we know in 1998) cannot be granted immunity from the charge of irresponsibility or divorced from participation in the selling of the war imo, if for no other reason due to ignorance or the enabling silence always is.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Report_Powell_hits_Cheney_on_manupulation_0412.html
If keyboard warriors like me can study and cry foul as a result of it on the nuke questions and the critical role they played in the march to war the AUMF facillitated, surely all the smart guys we elected, dems and repubs alike, could have and should have slowed that march down with no votes until something more closely approximating "imminency" was established. This is no doubt why the push for the Iraq AUMF came first, with UNSC res 1441 second, which reeks of a cart before the horse situation to me. Maybe they didn't think Bush would lie us into war, or boot the inspectors before they could show the "flaws" in the intelligence, but it was certainly their job to include that in their calculation of the most important decision they can ever possibly make. This is why I've long contended that the Clinton efforts prior to Bush's best explain both the yes votes from dems and the level of public support for the war that resulted, regardless of the motivation for them like sanction preservation as opposed to invasion and occupation, etc. The potential for/the spectre of a nuclear threat was kept alive throughout the BC admin and beyond as a result, and were certainly exploited quite energetically by Bush and his lying crew if nothing else.
Bush bears the full responsibility for the war crime his war of aggression was and is, but the idea that the dems had no role whatsoever in creating the conditions conducive for that criminal act to take place, and therefore that slice of responsibility -- which my reading of your efforts indicates is the case you seem to be arguing -- will remain uncompelling and unconvincing to many of us.
But do keep trying. That's the case being made by most of us against the dems, not that they, like Bush, are war criminals as a result, or are directly complicit in that crime.
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LOL, I think Blix and ElBaradei were behind the President getting the Nobel Peace Prize early in his
stevenleser
Mar 2013
#5
I took it in the spirit intended. As a big upraised middle finger to George W. Bush from the
stevenleser
Mar 2013
#32
Blix and ElBaradei are always generous with language. They let the facts speak for them.
stevenleser
Mar 2013
#4
The mindset of aggressive neo-cons who believe in american exceptionalism no matter the circumstance
Babel_17
Mar 2013
#41
mainstream media shoved that war down our throats with propaganda, starting in 2002 nt
markiv
Mar 2013
#8
They weren't the only ones who missed the weapons inspectors angle. Even non-mainstream media missed
stevenleser
Mar 2013
#13
I especially despise Condoleeza Rice for her role in the tragedy. She is arrogant.
olegramps
Mar 2013
#9
She was willing to do anything and say any lie for Bush/Cheney. She was the perfect loyal servant.
stevenleser
Mar 2013
#11
I thought her family was in the oil business for many years before, and during the Iraq War.
DhhD
Mar 2013
#15
Do you have a link? The only thing I have ever seen is that her dad was a basketball coach.
stevenleser
Mar 2013
#30
She headed Chevron's committee on public policy before going to work for shrub. n/t
Egalitarian Thug
Mar 2013
#49
No, YOUR take is revisionism. He has been saying the same thing all along, as has the world.
stevenleser
Mar 2013
#27
Not correct in this case. The UN said it was every other country's business.
stevenleser
Mar 2013
#29
If, in fact, it was every other country's business why didn't Lesotho invade Iraq?
Tierra_y_Libertad
Mar 2013
#31
Simple answer? If the Weapons inspectors weren't let back in, they could have.
stevenleser
Mar 2013
#33
The problem is, now, that they remain unindicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Mar 2013
#36
I remember my response on my blog to that was, with the no fly zones in place? Not possible.
stevenleser
Mar 2013
#38