General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Who has been with DU for more than 10 years? [View all]Martin Eden
(12,863 posts)What does that mean?
Essentially, all they knew for sure was the pre-1991 Gulf War stockpiles weren't entirely accounted for as having been destroyed.
What they also knew, and weren't making clear to the public, was that biochem weapons have a limited shelf life and the scattered refuse left over from the first gulf war may have been a hazard in the local environment but posed practically no threat to the United States. There was no proof that biochem weapons production facilities had been rebuilt, and even fresh weapons were of dubious value in attacking the United States halfway around the world.
The notion that Iraqi "unmanned aerial aircraft" (drones) could somehow deliver a biochem attack to US shores was beyond ludicrous, yet Bush gravely warned the American people of this threat to our homeland. He also warned that Saddam and al Qaeda had "ties going back ten years" but what he didn't say is that Saddam had rejected an outreach by al Qaeda because he knew these jihadists were a threat to his regime. The "relationship" consisted of Saddam keeping a wary eye on this potential enemy. Their only safe haven in Iraq was under the no-fly zone near the northern border with Iran.
Bush did everything he could to conflate Saddam with al Qaeda and 9/11, but that was entirely false rhetoric. Hell, even the declassified version of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (which was heavily biased towards playing up the threat of WMD) stated Saddam was highly unlikely to give WMD to al Qaeda unless we invaded and he had nothing left to lose. A big deal was made out of Saddam giving money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers whose homes had been bulldozed by the Israeli authorities, but my response to that is to ask how many Palestinian attacks in Israel were carried out with WMD supplied by Saddam? The answer is zero, because Saddam was not a jihadist willing to commit suicide. He could be, and was, deterred.
If Hillary Clinton didn't know Bushco's case for war was a bunch of misleading propaganda, she is a blithering idiot.