General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Are we really going to pretend we were fooled into the Iraq War? [View all]stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Up until at least the end of December 2002, the Clintons both thought Iraq likely had WMD, John Kerry thought that Iraq likely had WMD, leaders in Syria, Russia, China, France, the UK thought it likely that Iraq had WMD.
I think once you allow yourself to believe that everyone thinks like you, it allows very provincial thinking and opinions.
And if you think people 'know' and 'believe' the same things you do and they take what you think is the wrong course of action, its easy to label them 'bad people'. Hence the labeling of many Democrats who voted for IWR.
Not only did most Americans and most high level politicians and pundits globally think that Iraq had WMD until the end of 2002, many Americans believed crazy things like the poll you cite showed.
There is nothing wrong that anyone in the world did regarding Iraq right up until the end of November of 2002 and that includes IWR and UN Sec Res 1441. That is regardless of the fact that both IWR and UN Sec Res 1441 were later misused by the Bush admin to justify war.
There was nothing wrong with putting pressure on Saddam Hussein to try to get Weapons Inspectors back into the country. That is what those two actions were intended to do. Weapons inspectors were in fact allowed back into Iraq within a week of IWR and UN Sec Res 1441 and their inspections clearly showed in their reports on March 7, 2003 that no weapons were found in the inspections after every site had been inspected.
After the inspectors were allowed in, it was then that the Bush admin intentions started to become clear as they continued to press for military action. Even that at first could have been dismissed as potential posturing to make sure Iraq didnt turn around and kick the inspectors out or impede their progress.