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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Oeconomicus who wrote (72093)	2/6/2005 12:12:43 AM
From: bentway	Respond to of 89467

The American people never would have signed off on invading Iraq to "free the Iraqi people", and certainly not to create another theocracy in the ME, even a democratic one. They, and Congress, signed off on removing Saddam's non-existant WMD before he could give it to terrorists that, it turns out, he had no relations with. It's only SINCE no WMD or terrorist links were found that the "free the Iraqi people" rationale has been featured by the Bushies. Even Wolfowitz admits they settled on WMD and fearmongering as the best way to "sell" the invasion. WMD Just a Convenient Excuse for War, Admits Wolfowitz By David Usborne Independent Digital Friday 30 May 2003 The Bush administration focused on alleged weapons of mass destruction as the primary justification for toppling Saddam Hussein by force because it was politically convenient, a top-level official at the Pentagon has acknowledged. The extraordinary admission comes in an interview with Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Defence Secretary, in the July issue of the magazine Vanity Fair. Mr Wolfowitz also discloses that there was one justification that was "almost unnoticed but huge". That was the prospect of the United States being able to withdraw all of its forces from Saudi Arabia once the threat of Saddam had been removed. Since the taking of Baghdad, Washington has said that it is taking its troops out of the kingdom. "Just lifting that burden from the Saudis is itself going to the door" towards making progress elsewhere in achieving Middle East peace, Mr Wolfowitz said. The presence of the US military in Saudi Arabia has been one of the main grievances of al-Qa'ida and other terrorist groups. "For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on," Mr Wolfowitz tells the magazine. The comments suggest that, even for the US administration, the logic that was presented for going to war may have been an empty shell. They come to light, moreover, just two days after Mr Wolfowitz's immediate boss, Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, conceded for the first time that the arms might never be found.