Re: What? All the international observers left Iraq before we invaded!
You are confused. What you are probably thinking of is the handful of U.N. weapons inspectors who did, in fact, leave Iraq before March, 2003. What I am referring to however is a much broader cadre of NGOs, independent journalists, bloggers, and lower ranking U.S. military and mercenary personnel who could have blown the whistle should some devious Bushies try to plant weapons. In an article whose URL has gone stale, I published an item on SI where the Mehr News Service of Tehran cited the introduction of phony WMDs into the port of Umm Qsar in early 2004. The article may have served as a sort of inoculation against the eventual attempt by the U.S. military to deceive us on the issue of planted WMDs.
After all, the U.S. military has such a stellar record of telling us the truth, eh? Pat Tillman's fratricide, the heroics of Jessica Lynch, the claim that the U.S. would spend no more than $1.7 Billion to rebuild Iraq.
You've got to hand it to the U.S. military, it is one of the most disreputable, dishonest and deceitful institutions on the planet today.
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Re: There was plenty of time and opportunity to plant and then "find" the WMD during the chaos after Iraq collapsed.
What you seem to be clueless about is that each and every weapon and weapon system has a signature of some sort. Whether it is the signature of the Ames-specific variety of aerosolized anthrax that was used to attack Sens. Daschle and Leahy and became such an embarrassment to the FBI and the creeps at Ft. Detrick, or the anodizing of the aluminum "centrifuge" tubes that was clear giveaway that these Italian produced tubes were designed for conventional artillery, every WMD has a signature.
The problem the U.S. faced was attempting to claim that phony WMDs were genuine, and then having intelligent inspectors come along and embarrass the U.S. liars when the real origin of the bogus materials was exposed.
I don't think the U.S. military wanted to be caught taking such a risk with duplicity. Hell, they have no credibility as it is. |
