A rchive Date
[ 09-02-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://www.canoe.com/Columnists/brodbeck_feb8.html
We were Bush-whacked by those WMDs
By TOM BRODBECK - Winnipeg Sun
February 8, 2004
When you go back and read exactly what was said to justify the invasion of Iraq, it's easy to see why so many supported it at the time.
I almost forgot how unequivocal, absolute and unambiguous U.S. President George W. Bush and his lieutenants were in the months leading up to the slaughter about how former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. And I thought it would be useful to revisit those statements, before anybody tries to rewrite history here.
It wasn't "we believe" Saddam has WMD. It wasn't "we have enough intelligence to lead us to believe" Saddam is stockpiling biological and chemical weapons. No. It was without any doubt, without any qualifiers whatsoever that "we know" he has them.
Given that level of certainty, you can understand why a large percentage of people in the U.S. and Canada thought that going into Iraq and killing thousands of people was the right thing to do. Of course, we now know that level of certainty was manufactured. And when Bush and others said at the time that they had incontrovertible evidence that Saddam had WMD, they were either lying or they were reckless.
If they scrutinized the intelligence and still told the public they had irrefutable proof, then they were lying - knowingly spreading false information. They couldn't have had incontrovertible evidence because there was none - no WMD were found.
And please spare me the argument that Saddam's massive arsenal was moved out of Iraq before the Americans came. This guy couldn't even smuggle himself out of Iraq, much less a large arsenal of chemical and biological weapons. They found the guy in a hole in the ground, for heaven's sake.
"The president of the United States and the secretary of defence would not assert as plainly and bluntly as they have that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction if it was not true, and if they did not have a solid basis for saying it," said Ari Fleischer, Bush's press secretary at the time, on Dec. 4, 2002, before the invasion.
He added this on Jan. 9, 2003: "We know for a fact that there are weapons there." A fact. Bush said repeatedly that there was "no doubt" Saddam had WMD. He didn't say "little" doubt. "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised," he said March 17, in an address to the nation.
Colin Powell, secretary of state, was very clear: "There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more," he said Feb. 5, 2003.
Even Tommy Franks, commander in chief central command, was unequivocal. "There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction," he said March 22, 2003. "And . . . as this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them."
Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld even said he knew where the WMD were located. "We know where they are," he said during an ABC interview March 30, 2003. "They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
Pretty compelling stuff. There was no question at all that Iraq had WMD, the Bush administration assured the world. It was a fact.
What Bush is now trying to do is deflect criticism away from himself and onto his intelligence agencies. That's why he called an inquiry into the whole affair. He's trying to position themselves in such a way that if the intelligence was wrong, it wasn't his fault. He was just relying on the intelligence people.
That's called passing the buck. If you're going to stand up as the president of the United States and tell the world that, beyond any doubt, a country has WMD and on that basis you're going to invade that country and kill a lot of people, you better be damn certain of your intelligence. He wasn't. He knew he wasn't. But he went ahead with the invasion anyway.
Let history judge him harshly.
Tom Brodbeck is the Sun's city columnist. He can be reached by e-mail at tbrodbeck@wpgsun.com Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@wpgsun.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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