Someone Knew There Were No Weapons of Mass Destruction

[acmavm]

By DOUG GIEBEL

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Belief and conviction, however, are not always based on evidence. Before coalition troops invaded Iraq, many experts both inside and outside of government repeatedly stated the supposed weapons no longer existed. Since no WMD have turned up, David Kay and others have said "all" of us were fooled, and the Bush Administration claims it relied on "the best information available" in deciding WMD posed a growing or an imminent threat. These positions are misleading, since not "all" experts were taken in, and the "best" intelligence information was the information ignored or rejected by those who sought to wage war against Saddam. Instead, Bush, Blair and their colleagues apparently relied on the worst intelligence. To some observers, this reliance deliberately dismissed those who were not singing the proper hymn.

Woodward may be correct to assume President Bush and some of his closest advisors sincerely trusted in the presence of Saddam's WMD, but someone close to the invasion plans most assuredly believed something else. There is sufficient evidence to suggest insiders knew well before the coalition entered Iraq that no WMD would be encountered. If so, it also suggests these individuals knew the case for the existence of WMD was bogus from the beginning.

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5. Most significantly, the Pentagon actively encouraged hundreds of reporters to be "embedded" with coalition troops. The few reporters who survived vicious WMD attacks would have sent out real-time pictures and descriptions of the carnage, horrifying the viewing and reading public around the globe. Does this seem to be the sort of risk Bush, Blair and their ambitious colleagues would willingly take? Could Bush, Blair, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Powell and other big-wigs pose for photo-ops in a "Portable Phonograph" landscape polluted beyond imagining?

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According to reports, some American military personnel were astonished when no WMD materialized. Recently Australia's newspaper "The Age" reported, "Australian troops fighting in Iraq were told in an official briefing days before entering the country that Saddam Hussein did not have the capability to launch weapons of mass destruction against its neighbours." The news must have relieved anxiety for Aussie troops. Surely if Australia knew, it seems reasonable to assume some in the U.S. command structure also knew. Why didn't U.S. military leaders clue in their troops, too?

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In other words, a little more common sense, some coherent thought in the American media, and the integrity and intelligence to ask some very important questions could have probably saved us from the mess that is Iraq. That's my opinion.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Link here

http://www.counterpunch.org/giebel05082004.html

[acmavm]

2. Crap, did it again. Thank you very much for covering my stupidity.

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