Hawk, you were not very concerned with FACTS when it was Saddam in your sights. The probability of Israel having WMD was much higher than of Iraq, even before we confirmed the matter by invading.
What are you talking about? Whether Saddam had WMDs or not, it was HIS OBLIGATION under a binding cease-fire agreement that WILLINGLY agreed to. Of course, his only other option was to opt to maintain hostilities and have coalition forces overthrow him in 1991, rather than 2003.
When he completely violated the cease-fire in 1998 by ceasing all cooperation with UNSCOM inspectors after they discovered a damning set of documents that directly called into question the credibility of Iraq's record of WMDs expended during the Iran-Iraq war, we had the right (obligation?) to re-commence hostilities at that time in order to force compliance.
It mattered not whether Saddam actually possessed WMDs or not. What mattered was that almost every intelligence agency belonging to members of the UNSC unanimously agreed that Iraq was in material breach and no one could guarantee whether Saddam was in compliance or not.
And even in March, 2003, after Saddam was granted a further 90 days to "fess up", UNMOVIC inspectors were forced to file a 176 page report disclosing STILL UNRESOLVED issues related to Iraq's WMD programs/inventory.
And while many people may assert that Bush and the CIA "lied and deceived" the American people about Iraq's WMD programs, the reality is that every indicator that Saddam presented was that he was continuing his programs illicitly. And TO THIS DAY, we STILL DO NOT HAVE full accountability of Iraq's WMD inventory. All we have is an agreement by the Iraq Survey Group analysts and Subject Matter Experts (SME) that it's unlikely those inventories still exist. But it's not a guarantee, nor an actual physical or documentary accounting (and we all know that documents are ALWAYS correct and never misrepresent)..
Bottom line.. NOW we know that Saddam doesn't possess the capability to use WMDs. But up until his overthrow, no one, not even his own generals, were certain about the actual status of Iraq's WMD inventory.
And there's no evidence that can completely eliminate the possibility that WMDs weren't carried into Syria, despite the numerous rumours to that fact that we heard while I was with ISG.
That's my view Neolib. I'm not perfect and never claimed to be. But I take umbrage when people accuse me of playing "fast and loose" with the facts.
The reality is that no one can credibly state exactly what the status of those missing WMD inventories actually are.
Hawk |
