Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (130440)	4/29/2004 12:15:05 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Hawkmoon, I think you missed the first part of the conversation. I was the question from a post-American occupied Iraq perspective. As you know, there have been no barriers to talking to, arresting, or interrogating Iraqi scientists engineers or technocrats over the last 10-12 months. Various reports have stated that those scientists and others have consistently denied that there were ANY active chemical, biological or nuclear programs. In retrospect it appears that this may be precisely the reason why Saddam Hussein did not want the U.N. inspectors to talk to them. He may have had some strange notion that the U.S. wanted to invade primarily for reasons other than wmds and he knew that the threat of wmds was a deterrent. It appears, therefor, that he was walking a tightrope that consisted of making sure there were no wmds to be discovered, while at the same time stonewalling so that no one could confirm that there were no such weapons. In any event my point is a valid one; we cannot say "it would be easy to conceal such weapons and therefor we cannot say they do not exist" when their existence and concealment would involve a lot more than simply "poofing" them into holes. The people trail is not there, thus the overwhelming likelihood is that the wmds were not there. Bush and his administration must know that and Kay must have explained the basis for his conclusions to them. For Cheney and Bush, and to a lessor extent Colin Powell, to continue with the weak claims such as "they could be hidden in a ...turkey farm" shows deception, not real uncertainty. We should be smart enough to figure this out and to reject the "we think you're stupid enough to believe nearly anything" rhetoric that's dumped on us on a regular basis.