The REAL Imminent threat: No WMD would be found

[Martin Eden]

With Bush counterattacking by trying to rewrite history about the lead-up to war, I felt compelled today to write this LTTE (I won't know for several days whether it gets published):

President Bush wants us to believe that before the 2003 invasion, all intelligence agencies were in agreement about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The fact is however, that assertions coming from the White House and Pentagon about "reconstituted nuclear weapons" and ties to al Qaeda went beyond what others were saying.

Furthermore, there is a tremendous difference between assumptions in 2002 based on sketchy intelligence, and reports coming from the UN inspectors after they were readmitted. Given free access throughout Iraq, they discovered the considerable infrastructure necessary for a nuclear weapons program simply did not exist.

Why was it necessary to launch an invasion while the inspectors were in the process of gathering reliable, on-the-ground intelligence? The real imminent threat was the likelihood that no weapons would be found and the rationale for war would vanish along with the "mushroom clouds" we were told to fear.

[NanceGreggs]

1. Well done!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. So frigging transparent a child could see through this charade....

I smelt it way before any of this went down, knew what the costs would be, knew what the end result would be. Now we have to live with the mess these morons have created... and it isn't going to be pretty.

[Martin Eden]

4. It boggles my mind that these 2 obvious points aren't being made:

1) A clear distinction must be made between prewar intelligence BEFORE and AFTER the inspectors were readmitted.

2) There was absolutely no imminent threat while the inspectors were scouring the country -- other than the inevitable report that there were no WMD.


It should not be difficult for the Dems to respond to chimpy's latest utterances, but to be effective they've got to hammer on a few basic points that the public can understand and agree with (at least those who didn't drink too much koolaid).

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Can you hear it now?? "We've got to get them Unscom bastids

out of there before they screw up our chances of bombing the sh*t out of Baghdad.

[Canuckistanian]

3. The UNSCOM inspectors were crisscrossing Iraq

Going everywhere US intel said there would be weapons. None were ever found.

Reports were made that the inspectors were coming up dry for WMD.

And the WH was receiving every bit of this info.

[Martin Eden]

6. And they were denigrating that information

because it conflicted with their agenda.

NOW Bush is asserting that all intelligence agencies agreed, but THEN they were disagreeing with the UN inspectors. Cheney directly stated he believed Elbaredei was "frankly, wrong" about Iraqi nukes.

The brazenness of the continued lying is astounding, but standard operating procedure for this administration.

[CJCRANE]

7. Inspectors only cost $80 million per year

as opposed to the $200 billion the war cost (so Halliburotn would've lost out big time if the inspectors had stayed and proved there were no WMDs).