You know WHY everyone in the WORLD thought Iraq had WMD?!?!?

[berni_mccoy]

BECAUSE THE BUSH CABAL FAKED THE INTELLIGENCE!

Damn, I wish someone would NAIL these SPINNERS WITH THAT! I am SO Sick and tired of hearing this EXCUSE.

[napi21]

1. I've been yelling the same thing at my TV for a long time!

Why did they all believe it? BECAUSE THE BUSHIES TOLD THAM THAT!!!!

I hope it's not just you and I that realize that!

[uppityperson]

4. yup.

[RC]

2. I thought is was because rummy sold them the WMD

Never mind they would be outdated and useless by 2002.

[Ready4Change]

Not outdated. Degraded.

What we sold them had a short shelf life. Whatever didn't get used in the Iran/Iraq war or in Saddams attacks on his own people just degraded into relative useless materials.

[CornField]

9. Yeah, I think that's why they didn't plant some

They couldn't believe that Saddam could use all those weapons we provided to him on his own people.

Now, riddle me this:

My two neighbors are having arguments. I don't really care for either one and I consider both to be mentally unstable. I decide to give the one I like the most a gun in hopes that he will off the other neighbor. Instead, he turns the gun on his wife and children. Do I bear any criminal responsibility for providing the weapon?

[mtowngman]

3. I always wondered

why the cabal didn't go as far as to send the evidence to Iraq, plant it there and find it at an opportune moment, hiding in a hole with a beard or something.

[NewJeffCT]

7. They tried it, but were caught!

There was an article last summer or spring from a middle eastern news service that basically had said that the US was unloading Soviet style armaments to use as planted WMDs. I think it was the same service that broke the Saddam captured story a day or two before it made the US news.

[mtowngman]

18. Did they at least

remember to remove the "made in usa" tags?

[seabeyond]

11. they tried and iran and another group called them on it. AND

i think people expected the old ones, the one from reagan's time and that they wouldnt be usable. bush knew he couldnt get away for going to war for wmd's anyway. that isnt why he got the ok for war. he had to escalate it to mushroom cloud, aluminum tube and drones. so they would be coming to our country getting us. so even if he found wmd's a LOT of people expected it, not good enough. not why we went

he totally cooked the evidence for what did get us to iraq. it wasnt about wmd's. that was just the kicker that there wasnt any wmds

[Ready4Change]

5. False framing. NOT everyone thought this.

A number of people disputed then idea. Many of them were people with good reasons to be in the know. In fact, a good many people within our own intelligence gathering services dispute the idea.

However, all those voices, many of them seasoned experts, were marginalized. Our leaders filtered out all voices except the few, and they were just a few, who still claimed Iraq had WMDs.


It was like asking 100 people what color an apple is. 99 of them say it's red. One of them says "It might be red, it might be green. I don't know because I'm color blind." Does it make sense to declare that the apple MUST be green? No, but that's what our administration did.

[sandnsea]

12. No, it wasn't like that

It was like 100 apples and how many had worms and how many didn't. And for the ones with worms, what was their purpose. And what was the purpose of the ones without worms. And some were certain on the ones with worms, but not so sure on the ones without worms. Then you go on to analyze the plums and peaches and bananas. And the secret missions of people like Wilson that NOBODY knew about. It was not as simple as you portray.

[Ready4Change]

21. Color blindness = rational for biasing information.

Good information gathering involves not just getting information, but examining that information in light of its source.

In hindsight, most of the information claiming that Iraq still had a potent WMD capability came from people who had a stake in removing the Saddam regime. People like Challabi.

So, say information gathering is like picking through a barrel of apples. You throw out the ones with obvious worms. (Challabi supporters.) You throw out the rotting ones. (Forged Nigerian Yellow Cake documents.) You also throw away the unripened ones. (Those who wanted to just end the sanctions, claiming that if we were just nice to Saddam he'd become a saint overnight.)

After that, what do you have? Clear evidence that Iraq was 99% detoothed, and liable to stay that way for the foreseeable future. We know that was the case now in hindsight, and I think our information services and our highest leaders knew this in 2001.

IMO.

[sandnsea]

27. Fair enough

Except I would say anybody could have thrown out about 75%. But our highest leaders, other than the Bushies, didn't know there were rotting ones in another 15%, under the good ones because the Bushies intentionally hid them. (forged Niger documents & Wilson trip) The cabal knew, but they are the only ones who knew and they are the only ones who should be held accountable. And if anybody did know about all of it, there was still about 10%, not 1%, to consider. I'd say there was a 90% chance the aluminum tubes weren't for nuclear weapons, not 99%. Add up a bunch of 10%, and it's enough to make sure you get an unrestricted inspection program.

[evermind]

16. Correct. Only US, UK and a handful of bribed nations thought so

Everyone else (including most of Europe and the relevant UN bodies) was a lot more skeptical.

[sandnsea]

6. JMJ, that's my whole friggin' point

Stop blaming everybody else for what George Bush did. Aaargh!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. Dudn't matter if they had any... the inspectors were combing their

country, they were cutting up missiles (remember they live next to Iran) that flew a few miles too fer.... and so forth.

Shrubco CHOSE WAR BECAUSE OF THE MONETARY GAIN THEIR GD FRIENDS WOULD ENJOY. Anyone who tells you anything else is full of sh*t.

[Ready4Change]

17. Yep, WMD or no, Iraq was well contained.

Far better contained than it is today, in fact.

I'm now convinced otherwise, but in 2001 I thought Iraq had WMDs. However, I still was against the war because I was confident at how well Iraq was contained.

[NewJeffCT]

10. I've posted this 3 times today, but NOT everybody

To be honest, I thought Saddam had some WMD somewhere in Iraq... after all, we gave him some in the 80s. I never thought it justified invasion.

However, Mohammed El Baradei of the IAEA said "no"... you remember him? The guy that won that Nobel Prize thingie?

I think Hans Blix thought not, too.

[sandnsea]

13. The inspections should have continued

I think almost all Democrats agreed with that, save Zell Miller and maybe Joe Lieberman.

[Disturbed]

15. Broadcast a Big Lie and repeat it ad nauseum.

Most people will believe that lie.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. Only the dumb and feeble minded believed that nonsense.

I have some choice items to sell to anyone who came away from colin's UN speech a believer.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[newspeak]

22. so, I know another country that has stockpiles of WMD's

should other countries attack this country--I mean, this country has a history of aggression against it's neighbors and has even orchestrated coups against democratically elected leaders--How can you take the splinter out of your brother's eye, when there is a log in your own eye? Maybe, you should ask this administration where are the other pages that they took out from the UN report before they showed it to Congress. Those papers might be a little damaging for someone, don't you think?

[berni_mccoy]

23. Bullshit! You obviously weren't listening to the Weapons inspectors.

[Mr_Spock]

24. HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

As if what came before Bush mattered. WHEN the plans were being made, they SHOULD HAVE BEEN confirming the intelligence. Why didn't they want to know? Because war crimes are more fun. That's OK - war crimes are punishable by death...

[EC]

20. Because PNAC was writing everyone saying that Iraq had WMD's since

the 90's, these guys always prepare by setting up their excuses long before they need them...

[Wordie]

25. And who was involved with faking those Niger Uranium documents?

For your answer, see the La Republica expose story, at this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5246931

[leesa]

26. Many people around the world were not fooled. Many Americans were

not fooled. Only those who were blindfolding themselves or completely uninformed chose to believe the swill.