Did Clinton's 1998 air strikes destroy Iraq WMD? Not ONE U.S. casualty

[TruthIsAll]

So, where are the WMD? Were the bulk of them destroyed by Clinton in 1998...and we didn't realize it, because we were all distracted by the Repuke obsession with Monica? And to think that around this time, the Repukes were impeaching Clinton because of that stain on her blue dress.

NOT ONE SOLDIER DIED. NO INVASION WAS NECESSARY. AND THE REPUKES SAID BILL WAS WAGGING THE DOG. THEY FOUGHT HIM EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.

Here is what Defense Secretary Cohen and General Shelton had to say:

SECRETARY COHEN: The bottom line is, as I indicated, we're going to continue to contain him. Containment has worked to this point. He has been unable to seriously reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction program, to rebuild his military. He's been contained from going North, and the South as well. He has been in a box.
...............................................................

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec98/iraq_package_12-17.html

Dec. 17, 1998:Congressional reaction to the air strikes against Iraq.
Dec. 17, 1998:President Clinton addresses the nation.
Dec. 16, 1998:President Clinton speaks after the strikes begin

White House
The U.N. Office of the Iraq Programme

UNSCOM

JIM LEHRER: The At the Pentagon Defense Secretary Cohen and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Henry Shelton gave a joint briefing later. Cohen said there have been no U.S. casualties. He did not give estimates for Iraq. General Shelton said more than 50 targets were hit in yesterday's raid. Both men used the term "WMD factories," meaning facilities capable of producing weapons of mass destruction.

Only the second day.

JIM LEHRER:Here's an excerpt:

SECRETARY COHEN: Our early assessment of the military action against Iraq shows that our forces are performing well. There have been no American casualties, and we are achieving good coverage of our targets, and, as a result, we are advancing our goal of containing Saddam Hussein. We're diminishing his ability to attack his neighbors, either conventionally or with weapons of mass destruction.

And since Iraq has now prevented the United Nations inspectors from doing their job, we have to resort to military action to continue to contain him.

Our targets include Iraq's air defense system; its command and control system; air fields; and other military infrastructure, and facilities. One thing should be absolutely clear; we are concentrating on military targets. We are not attacking the people the people of Iraq. And we have no desire to increase the suffering that Saddam Hussein has imposed on his people.


more...
-----------------------------------------------------------

Clinton, Blair claim success after 'Desert Fox' ends

By Hans de Vreij, 20 December 1998

After 70 hours of nightly air attacks, Operation 'Desert Fox' came to an end at 2300 GMT on Saturday. In simultaneous statements, US President Bill Clinton and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that the operation had been successful and that considerable damage had been inflicted on the Iraqi military and security apparatus.

"We have inflicted significant damage on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction programs, on the command structures that direct and protect that capability, and on his military and security infrastructure", President Clinton said on Saturday. But detailed assessments of the results of 'Desert Fox' have not yet been published.

MORE...

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[lcordero]

1. I really don't think so

I think that they were destroyed well before that since Iraq was debilitated to the point that it couldn't even feasibly defend itself.

[sandnsea]

2. But Clinton still did it

Him and that silly inspections process.

[RUexperienced]

3. So why hasn't Clinton been patting himself on the back?

If this was true, Bill would be the first one telling us all about it.

[Speed8098]

5. No, he wouldn't

He'll let the light bulb go off for the rw on it's own. If he were to start hawking how he got rid of WMD's, the idiots like Flush and O'Reilly would have a field day.

Eventually, all of the BS this regime has put us through will come out and it will be vindication time for those of us that could say, "We told you so."

[OneTwentyoNine]

4. Damned if he did,damned if he didn't--same old hyprocrisy...

Clinton has been chastised for being weak on terrorism,weak on Iraq yet condemned for any bombings or inspections in Iraq.

The freeper crowd loves to bring up bombings,they cite one in 1993 or 94. Clinton bombed to retaliate when it was proven that SH put a contract out on Bush Sr. Of course they conveniently leave out those little details,only that Clinton dropped bombs. And.. they would have been all over his ass if he'd done nothing.

Bottom line after Clintons actions? SH was contained,had NO WMD,virtually no military. We knew that,Bush knew that and I'll GUARANTEE that the intel he got told him exactly that.

So...how many Americans came home in a bag from Iraq during the Clinton years? How many attacks on US soil did we suffer at the hands or Iraqi's?

David

[loudnclear]

6. Clinton criticized by the RW yet the first WTC perpertrators were found,

tried, and imprisoned...and this was blowback because of Bush the elder's Desert Storm and other previous (REagan)attrocities in that region.

Clinton did what Repugs only gave lip-service to: balanced the budget, restored American dignity and respect throughout the world, built strong international alliances, actually began welfare reform but had to live with a Republican version that he didn't like, brought more people into the middle class, formed a government that represented all Americans (latinos, blacks, disabled, women, Christians, Muslims, veterns), cut back defense pork and trimmed the defense budget while increasing benifits and pay for uniformed men and women, signed "free-trade" (NAFTA)---now many will say that this hurt America but the idea of bringing America into a global economy will be proven correct in the years to come once the requirements to raise the standard of living of workers in all countries is a reality, and cast America as a peace-maker, not a war monger. He had his flaws, but god, look at what we have now!

[quaker bill]

7. It is not clear

that Saddam possessed weapons even as far back as 1998.

Saddam was saying he had destroyed them all before this raid. So far, we have found no evidence to prove Saddam was not telling the truth about this.

[underpants]

8. You mean there are more than one way to achieve a goal???

Hmmmm I guess all that wagging worked on that dog.

[jburton]

9. kick n/t

[TruthIsAll]

10. Kicking your kick

..

[Moderator]

11. TruthIsAll

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.


Thank you


DU Moderator

[waldenx]

12. Clinton killed some humans

humans that posed no threat to the United States and whos lives are no less valuable.

[JackRiddler]

13. Sorry, idiotic...

The WMD had been destroyed and the infrastructure dismantled by 1995 or 1996. By 1998 it was thoroughly obvious and 95 percent documented, as the man who would know, Chief Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, has made clear. There was French/Russian pressure to lift the sanctions, which the US did not want to do. The US instead pressured Ritter to create a provocation to allow a US/UK bombing. He refused, and resigned in Aug. 1998. The US inspectors kept creating provocations. Saddam made the U.S. inspectors pull out as a pack of spies. The U.S. then made the UN pull the rest of the inspectors. Finally, Saddam caved in and allowed all inspectors back in. But the U.S. claimed he was blocking them, and forced all inspectors back out (or rather, warned them to leave because the bombs would fall). The bombing started on the day of the impeachment, around Dec. 20, if you remember. It was purely for show. It destroyed no WMDs, as there were none to destroy! It was designed to create the impression Iraq had WMD so that the sanctions regime could be maintained. It was a crime, it killed a bunch of people. Nothing to be proud of.

[Hippo_Tron]

14. NO absolutely not...

It is impossible to achieve any military goals without full scale invasion. </sarcasm>

[Darranar]

15. I doubt it...

the inspectors destroyed them, and stopped Iraq from producing them.

Clinton removed them - a very foolish move, however uncooperative Saddam may have been.

[Tinoire]

16. No.... In 1998 Clinton wanted a full scale attack vs Iraq for WMDs

Clinton was as much as part of this charade as Bush in my opinion. This war isn't for Halliburton. It's for the dollar vs the Euro, the dominating currency of OPEC, oil, Israel and the American way of life-we would have gone regardless of who was in power. My father saw this war coming in great detail when Clinton was still President and gave me some very astute advice about investments before passing away. Not letting Bush and his appalling greed & insouciance off the hook, but there are some hard facts that need to be faced here. Clinton would have taken us in just the same- the acting and the forgeries would have been of better quality, that's all.


'Things worth fighting for'
Foreign policy team visits OSU
By Mike Spahn
Daily Staff Reporter

COLUMBUS - President Clinton's foreign policy team met yesterday at Ohio State University with a rowdy crowd in a town hall meeting to discuss the current situation in Iraq.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Secretary of Defense William Cohen and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger met for 90 minutes with a crowd that often yelled and chanted in protest of possible U.S. military action against Iraq.

<snip>

The discussion was interrupted early and often. Protesters began chanting anti-war slogans during Albright's opening comments and continued through much of the debate.

<snip>

Berger said the aim of a possible airstrike would be twofold: to diminish Saddam Hussein's weapons and reduce the threat to Iraq's neighbors.

"We will send a clear message to would-be tyrants and terrorists that we will do what is necessary to protect our freedom," Berger said.

Albright said Iraq will not easily recover from airstrikes if they occur.

<snip>

http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1998/feb/02-19-98/news/news1.html
===

Clinton team jeered during town hall

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Facing tough questions from America's heartland, the Clinton administration's foreign policy team tried to make the case Wednesday for U.S. military action against Iraq. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called Iraq's disputed weapons arsenal the "greatest security threat we face."

<snip>

When one questioner said as many as 100,000 Iraqi civilians could be killed in an attack, Albright replied, "I'm willing to make a bet that we care more about the Iraqi people than Saddam Hussein does."

Berger sought to frame the dispute in broad, strategic terms. He said the world could not afford to allow Iraq to flout the will of the international community.

<snip>

"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has 10 times since 1983," Berger said.

<snip>
http://www.usatoday.com/news/index/iraq/iraq172.htm

===

Anti-war cry heard at Ohio town meeting


By Caroline Broder
The Post

ATHENS, Ohio -- What was slated to be a peaceful town meeting in America's heartland turned tense at Ohio State University yesterday when protesters shouted anti-war sentiments, giving President Clinton's foreign policy team an uphill battle to garner support for a military strike on Iraq.

<snip>

With cries of "no blood for oil," and "we don't want your racist war," Chad Kister, an OU graduate student, led some of the protests that polarized the audience.

Robert Braud, a retired marine and OSU sophomore, said he would support a decision to go to war and was dismayed by the protests.

<snip>


http://www.kernel.uky.edu/1998/spring/02/23/news21.shtml

==

Just when it seems like the official media have a total lock on political discourse and nothing will ever again be said except by designated experts in pancake makeup, just when you think the last raw bit of reality has been plastic-wrapped and priced like a slice of processed cheese food- just when, in other words, you are about to consider getting seriously depressed-something wonderful, bizarre and totally unscripted happens.
I am thinking, of course, of the February 18 CNN "Town Meeting" on Iraq at Ohio State University in Columbus, featuring Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Secretary of Defense William Cohen and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. Here was an occasion that would seem to have offered about as much chance for the unexpected as a pharaoh's funeral. It was worse than propaganda, it was propaganda privatized: The Clinton Administration manufactures a spectacle of consent by normal red-blooded Americans to the bombing of Iraq, which it offers to a giant news conglomerate. This corporation then twists the already-bent occasion to fit its own commercial needs: banning other news organizations, structuring the discussion around advertising breaks, using the crowds who had come expecting a two-way exchange of views to bolster a false image of robust free speech. Not exactly one of those ideal speech communities Jurgen Habermas talks about! On the floor of the sports arena, carefully chosen likely war supporters-veterans, R.O.T.C. cadets, students enrolled in a military history class. Up in the balcony, barred from even the chance to submit a question for prescreening, everyone else.
Including, through an amazing oversight that White House aides publicly bemoaned for days afterward, some 200 to 300 local antiwar activists old-time activists, students, clergy, anarchists, union people who proceeded to make an impressive fuss. (Moderator Bernard Shaw's reference to maybe a "dozen" protesters was, of course, a lie.) Chanting. Heckling. Interrupting. Unfurling a banner-NO WAR-that one woman had smuggled in under her skirt. The protesters made so much noise that, after seven ejections and one arrest, a CNN producer agreed to let one of them ask a question if they agreed to pipe down. Jon Strange, a 22-year-old substitute teacher (who was, let it be noted, properly dressed and wearing a tie), asked a 64,000-dollar one: "Why bomb Iraq when other countries have committed similar violations?" He mentioned Turkey, which bombs the Kurds; Saudi Arabia, which tortures political and religious dissidents; Indonesia, which has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of East Timorese; Israel, which has been censured by the United Nations for bombing Lebanese civilians and brutalizing the Palestinians; and he could have mentioned many other nations as well.

<snip>
Too much free speech equals a major public relations disaster. In a stunning reversal, the very factors that had given the pro-war discourse the false appearance of monolithic consensus also made it vulnerable. Take conglomeratization: Thanks to CNN's global dominance, the whole world really was watching. How could the Clinton Administration persuade foreign governments of a course of action so dubious it couldn't even persuade its own citizens? (Not even Ohio supports the bombing, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said a few days later. Why should Egypt?) Take the media near-blackout of weeks and weeks of antiwar actions across the country. Suddenly people with questions about the) bombing could see they weren't alone and never had been. "I got phone calls from people all over the country saying our protest I gave them courage to do things in their own communities," | Strange told me when we spoke by phone. "I think we cut through people's feelings of isolation and hopelessness."

<snip>


Columbus wasn't the only protest sidelined in the reporting. An appearance by Albright at Columbia, South Carolina, was met with demonstrators (best placard: CLINTON: MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR). U.N. ambassador Bill Richardson was confronted with such an unruly audience at the University of Minnesota that he left without speaking, a story no major paper saw fit to print.

<snip>

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Foreign_Policy/HelloColumbus_SSS.html