We told you so.

[gridlore]

Final U.S. inspection report expected to undercut key Bush rationale for war

Undercutting the Bush's administration's rationale for invading Iraq, the final report of the chief U.S. arms inspector concludes that Saddam Hussein did not vigorously pursue a program to develop weapons of mass destruction after international inspectors left Baghdad in 1998, according to lawmakers and others briefed on the report.

In drafts, weapons hunter Charles Duelfer concluded that Saddam's Iraq had no stockpiles of the banned weapons but said he found signs of idle programs that Saddam could have revived if international attention had waned.

"It appears that he did not vigorously pursue those programs after the inspectors left," a Bush administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in advance of the report's release.

So, no WMD. No WMD programs. No links with al-Qaeda. No links with terrorism directed at the US.

We were lied to, and over a thousand American troops have died because of those lies.

Comments

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

Guys, it's not a single-issue war.

[thebitterguy]

It was sold as one.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

The casus belli given by the Bush administration was Saddam's failure to abide by UN resolutions demanding that he disarm. Claims were made in the State of the Union (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html), at the United Nations (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030205-1.html), and on the Sunday morning talk show circuit (http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bush/cheneymeetthepress.htm), all of which have been proved false.

It was only after we failed to find WMD that the spin meisters began praising Bush for liberating the Iraqis. They played up a link to al-Qaeda which doesn't exist, and refuse to even mention the failed quest for WMD.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

I can't argue that it was badly presented; the administration picked an issue they thought would convince a clear majority and put all their effort into selling it beyond their ability to back it up in hopes they would uncover enough goods to make it stick after the fact. But as plain as the findings of no WMD stockpiles are the findings of hijack training facilities at Salman Pak, and of the porous nature of the borders that even now allow armed bad guys from all over the Middle East to pass through on their way to go kill people.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

And yet there was no mention made of the alleged links to al Qaeda as a cause for war.

We were told that Iraq posed an immediate threat to the United States. Check out these quotes:

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=24970

Note that none of these quotes are phrased as "we think" or "Saddam might", but instead as declarations of fact.

"Some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent - that Saddam is at least 5-7 years away from having nuclear weapons. I would not be so certain. And we should be just as concerned about the immediate threat from biological weapons. Iraq has these weapons."
• Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 9/18/02

We were either lied to, or the administration was criminally stupid.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

That's how it was presented.

Granted Saddam's Iraq was a nasty place, and the guy was dangerous to his neighbours, but after Kuwait, or the Kurds, or evidence of torture of political opponents etc etc, there was no case being presented for intervention. And before this war, the only reason being trumpeted was WMD.