United States weapons inspector Charles Duelfer released his extensive report last week, and confirmed that Saddam Hussein had shut down Iraq's chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs following the first Iraq war in 1991. His report also showed that Saddam had no stockpiles of WMDs after that year. With that said, it is interesting to look back at how the Democrats, like Bush, lied to the American public, and inflated Saddam's supposed threat to our national security. The mendacity was undoubtedly universal. Here are a few of the choice quotes.)
"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line." - President Bill Clinton, February 4, 1998
"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Bill Clinton, February 17, 1998
"We must stop Saddam from ever again jeopardizing the stability and security of his neighbors with weapons of mass destruction." - Madeline Albright, February 1, 1998
"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983." - Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, February 18, 1998
"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." Letter to President Clinton. - (D) Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, others, October 9, 1998
"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." - Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), December 16, 1998
"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies." - Madeline Albright, Clinton's Secretary of State, November 10, 1999
"We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandate of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them." - Sen. Carl Levin (D, MI), September 19, 2002
"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country." - Al Gore, September 23, 2002
"Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." - Al Gore, September 23, 2002
"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), September 27, 2002
"The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons..." - Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV), October 3, 2002
"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force -- if necessary -- to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), October 9, 2002
"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years ... We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), October 10, 2002
"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members ... It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons." - Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), October 10, 2002
"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction." - Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), December 8, 2002
"Every day Saddam remains in power with chemical weapons, biological weapons, and the development of nuclear weapons is a day of danger for the United States." -Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) September 4, 2002
"If we wait for the [Iraq] danger to become clear, it could be too late." -Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del) September 4, 2002
"Iraq both poses a continuing threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region and remains in material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations by, among other things, continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability, actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability, and supporting and harboring terrorist organizations." -Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) February 5, 2003
"Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction ... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real..." - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), January 23. 2003
First why must people like you beat a dead horse???
Why do you believe the NEWS MEDIA that's only purpose is to make money for their company's medium?? You are not told everything by the military because the world can not handle the whole truth.
Vet-USAF
@dded : Lack of the Military verifying or denying the retrieval of WMDs to the world does not mean none were found. The world had proof ( WMDs are NOT JUST Nuclear in nature They include Biological, chemical, conventional explosives), Saddam's gassing of the Kurds was proof of WMDs! Repeatedly and unashamedly, with the full complicity of the corporate media. Definitely one of the saddest chapters in American history. Kool-Aid Drinker No. Acting on bad intell is not the same as lying Does a chicken have lips? does a one legged duck swim in circles? does a bear crap in the woods? YES Dude we trained Asama bin Laden and put Saddam Hussane in power, I have heard that President Bush was behind 911 so why hasn;t Bin laden denied that he did nto do 911??? If so, isn't it amazing that the people -- Democrats all, who claim that they are smarter than all the rest of us, and therefore should be put in charge of the nation -- fell for the "lies"? Your own quotations prove that these folks, who want to run the U.S., all fell for what they call a blatant lie.
Or could it be that the intel that was used was based on the numbers declared by Saddam and his cronies after the first Gulf War? Then you subtract the quantities of WMD that we could confirm were destroyed, and used the remainder (which was non-zero) as the justification? Because that's what happened.
Saddam and the Iraqi government HAD WMDs, and they had used them against the Iranians and against their own people. And a program that is "shut down" during inspections can be re-started pretty easily. Even worse, have we dug up every square inch of the desert in Iraq? So how do you know for a fact that they have no hidden stockpiles remaining? You don't, we don't, and nobody in the international community can prove the presence or absence, either.
Yes, the whole world was lied to. There were two conflicting sets of intelligence. The primary sources of the intel supporting the existence of WMDs were not citizens of the US or its allies. (This is not at all unusual; it is most often the case for intel of this nature.)
It was simply a case of which set of data everyone was more willing to believe. The fact of the matter was that the US and its allies thought it far more likely than not that the pro-WMD intel was correct. That bias is easily attributable to the previous decade of Saddam Hussein's defiance of the UN resolutions coupled with the recent terrorist attacks of 11-Sept 2001.
As it turns out, the US and its allies were wrong. But all "Monday morning quarterbacking" aside, and the circumstances being what they were, I still think the decision at the time was at least understandable if not entirely defensible. YES... it's true... I was reading the same information the CIA was reading and there was only ONE CONCLUSION... that there were NO WMD's and I was accused of being a commie.. of being un-AmeriKan... of not knowing what I was talking about... when I was reading the FOREIGN LANGUAGES the reports were written in... unlike most AmeriKans who can hardly read and write ENGLISH. I was kicked out of Yahoo groups and I was ridiculed because I KNEW BETTER than to believe the B.S. being put out by the Bush Administration Yes, big time.
"Acting on bad Intelligence..." was what people are supposed to believe after the lie had been uncovered. In my view one has to be a brain amputee to believe that.
The Bush gouvernment, with nearly all its high ranking members heavily involved in the oil industry wanted control of the oil. That's what they've got, and after doing everything to divide Iraqi society they got a civil war as well, so a good reason to stay.
In the meantime the US taxpayers and their children are footing the bill. No we were not lied to in any way. George Bush acted accourdingly to the information we currently had. Some of that information prooved wrong however the objective remained. Hussein was a bad man and we put him down. We went in and were doing the job. Have a little more faith in your government and your president. I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE SOURCES OF YOUR INFORMATION.THIS I DO KNOW THE ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE GAVE PROOF THAT JUST BEFORE WE WENT IN THE WMD' WERE SHIPPED TO SYRIA AND IRAN WHERE THEY ARE TO THIS DAY.ALSO FOR YOUR INFORMATION.THE BIBLE CODE I SAY THE BIBLE CODE LISTS sadam insane as one of the 911 conspirators.so were we just to let them go.This is where we failed.We failed in that we didn't march through all the middle east and concur the entire region.This fact will come back to haunt us as certain arab nations are working a secret deal with russia for the destruction of the USA and ISRAEL.NOTWITHSTANDING HOWEVER GOD HIMSELF WILL FIGHT FOR ISRAEL. THANK YOU D'S What the hell makes you think I am going to read that mass of crappola? Dude, paragraphs are your friend!
Now, as far as the WMD thing goes. Yeah, they pulled a fast one. Does it matter? Not at all, Saddam had to be removed and we should have done it during the first gulf war. Either way, the deal is done! The country is fairly stable and secure. The US troops will be going home very soon. At first they swallowed big lie.
Then they killed Saddam.
Now they open their eyes: "How cruel our world!"
If USA is democratic state, why such lie is possible?
What simple Americans have to do to stop worldwide aggression?
Yeah we were lied to about WMDs but that wasn't the real issue. Saddam Hussein, who had previously tried to invade Kuwait, was a mass murderer and mass torturer. His sons were even more brutal than he was. Saddam ran a Sunni mafia which was fond of torture chambers. Innocent Iraqis were in imminent danger of Saddam and his men. So I am willing to overlook the incorrect rhetoric Bush used about WMDs. Now having said that, I believe the allied forces should have left Iraq more than two years ago. I definitely do not want to see taxpayer money pay for a permanent US presence in Iraq. No, they did not lie, the threat was credible and true. If you listen to the actual original speech from the various cabinet members and the President, he never lied. Everyone knows Saddam had bio and chemical weapons...That is fact. Of course he had them leading up to the invasion. All the intel agencies had overwhelming information leading to what everybody said above...Stop looking for the conspiracy theory in everything...The government isn't actually interesting like in the movies.. |
