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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KonKilo who wrote (100697)	6/8/2003 1:39:28 PM
From: Bilow	Respond to of 281500

Hi ShilohCat; My favorite Rumsfeld quotes are the ones implying that the Iraqis were pita-eating-surrender-monkeys. Then he goes into Iraq half cocked and ends up with troops begging food from Iraqi civilians. Bush and Blair's big problem now is that since Congress and Parliament forced them to lie big time in order to get votes authorizing war, the blame game will be directed precisely at them. Those legislators will be able to say it wasn't their fault: "Sure I knew that Iraq would be a tough nut, but the President made it clear that there was no choice, that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction and planning to give them to terrorists." What's worse, Bush and Blair repeatedly promised to start a war only if the UN failed to disarm Iraq. Their failure to find WMDs brings up that lie too. -- Carl

To: KonKilo who wrote (100697)	6/8/2003 2:04:39 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 281500

Thanks Shiloh.. And who knows what source Rumsfeld was basing his opinion on. It's only now obvious that the suspected chemical weapons depots that were found in the area of Tikrit are not the alleged weaponized chemicals Rumsfeld likely perceived them to be. news.1chinastar.com cnn.com But that still doesn't suggest that Rumsfeld fabricated the story. If his intelligence sources, possibly through someone stealing in and obtaining a quick sample from trace elements in the surrounding dirt, it could easily be construed as "probable cause", especially since none of these containers had been disclosed to UNSCOM/UNMOVIC, despite being located in military facilities. And certainly Colin Powell was correct with regard to the mobile biological laboratories... Those should have been disclosed.. In fact, since they date from post-1991 agreements, they should never have been built in the first place. Chalabi may have been a source, through his own agents and connections. And of course, such evidence derived from him would have to vetted due to his obvious conflict of interest. But I suggest you refresh yourselves with the discoveries of the UNSCOMs inspector and the elaborate attempts on Saddam's part to hide Iraqs activities in the WMD arena. They bottom line is that intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs has always been hap-hazard given the totalitarian nature of the society and inability of intelligence services to properly penetrate that country with Human Intelligence resources (HUMINT). Few would dare to risk spying on Saddam, given the terrible consequences of being found out. But still, none of this supports the contention that Rumsfeld, or any other Bush administration official, deliberately lied and fabricated evidence. Hawk