Did pressure to find WMD contribute to AQQ's being left unsecured? >

[mr_hat]

I wonder if the civilian leadership in the Pentagon was so driven by the political necessity to a) get to Bagdhad and b) find WMD that they issued had a "if it isn't WMD keep moving" order.

I remember at the time that the big speculation was whether or not the white power found at AQQ was chem or bio. Turns out, it wasn't -- and that's the last we heard about the place. Until now.

Seems to fit Rummy's modus operandus. Haste wastes...

[Carolab]

1. No.

They didn't care. GET TO THE OIL FIELDS!!!!

[bpilgrim]

2. no. they secured the oil

not to mention that this stuff is used to detonate WMDs.

though look for fox to spin it that way.

peace

[mr_hat]

5. But they did specifically bust into this place >

test its contents and then leave it unsecured. They clearly weren't looking for oil.

[bpilgrim]

10. it was a show

they had to make it look real... but if they were actually concerned this site would have been secured like the oil was.

peace

[bpilgrim]

13. Krugman on AAR: Bushco in Iraq - never looked for WMD

The explosives story part of a larger picture - their behavior not consistent with someone looking for WMD
Predicts it'll be ugly....

more...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2555328

peace

[DebJ]

3. no, it was the one real concern of Bush: getting Sadam

[DebJ]

6. and stealing things from the museum....very important

[kikiek]

4. I think they knew there were no wmds. Ret CIA agent report I heard

said if they really believed Saddam had them AQQ was the 1st place to look. It was previously used for his weapons program. Also they said Saddam would have gone there to get the explosives to set them off. This proves we didn't believe the WMD hype before we went. What did we protect right away. The oil.

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. The explosives had no political value

as soon as they knew it wasn't anthrax they were outta there, there was absolutely nothing to gain news-wise from that shit.

[mr_hat]

8. That's my impression, too. And even if leadership knew there were no WMD >

(and I agree that they most certainly did) I wouldn't put it past Rummy to put troops into harm's way hunting for them nonetheless.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. They were only searching for old stale stuff that they knew wouldn't

hurt them. Ritter wasn't the only one to know that any WMD stuff they might of still kept would be harmless.

[LynnTheDem]

11. Why did they leave Iraq's SEVEN (7) nuke facilities UNGUARDED?

bushCartel DID NOT CARE about WMD...they KNEW there was NO WMD in Iraq.

*I* knew.

*YOU* probably knew.

The only possible "WMD" in Iraq were leftover useless bits and pieces...and there wasn't even any of that.

AND BUSH KNEW IT.

[starroute]

12. Absolutely yes -- laid out in this Robert Novak column from April 2003

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20030407.shtml

Where are the WMD?
Robert Novak
April 7, 2003

Last Friday, U.S. authorities told reporters that they may have discovered the smoking gun at the Latifiyah industrial complex, 25 miles south of Baghdad. A U.S. Army engineer brigade found boxes of white powder, nerve agent antidote and Arabic documents on chemical warfare. This looked more like a chemical-biological training unit than a real command post, and early testing of the suspicious powder showed it to be explosives.

"If we end this war with Iraq WMD-free, we're in trouble internationally," a State Department official told me Friday. "But I cannot believe that is going to happen. This isn't over yet, and you cannot make such a judgment over just two weeks."

There is, therefore, a double mission for U.S. forces. The primary mission is to destroy an evil regime, for the benefit of the Iraqi people and the peace of the region. The secondary mission is to come up with substantiation of the avowed reason by President Bush for asking the world to remove Saddam Hussein from power. At stake may be the ruptured international relations of the United States.