Saddam certainly had them. Used them on his own people. Then we gave him a deadline to get rid of them, and he did. Most likely to Syria. The president gave a speech and laid out 18 reasons why we were going to war. WMD's was just one of the 18.there is a lot to unpack here and it isn't all that simple.
- Hussien had WMD before the invasion
- Hussien used WMD against Iran before the invasion
- Hussein said he had WMD
- Hussein would not allow inspectors in, which was part of the truce and commitment he made previously
- The USA deployed tens of thousands of troops and repositioned the Army, Marines, AF and Navy in preparation for the invasion
- Days before the invasion, he said he didn't have WMD which put us in a bind. you cannot deeply tens of thousands of people, bring them back, or leave them there for any sustainable time. So was Hussien just buying time by lying or did he really NOT have WMD?
- In the final go, no-go meeting, CIA Director George Tenent (not a part of the admin) told the Admin that having WMD was a slam dunk.
- Stop watching CNN, Fox, MSNBC and reading the NYT/WaPo....they are NOT news, they are entertainment.
- Do your own research.
RIP Colin Powell
- Thread starter Obliviax
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I didn't. There were respectable suspicions bubbling up from intelligence sources that The weapons were not there. I was very suspicious that the Bush administration was looking for war. They invented the term weapons of mass destruction in order to achieve their goal of attacking Iraq.
Well, you were right, and I was CERTAINLY WRONG.
I remember being stunned that, in the end, there were no WMDs.
It wasn't the satellite images, it wasn't our intelligence agencies, it was Hussein being willing to disallow inspectors at the risk of his own life.
Think about that - had he allowed inspectors in, they would have verified no WMDs and he would be alive today (well, age excepted).
There was a credible long term realpolitik rationale to do so beyond wmd. A shame they handed the reconstruction job to the military rather than state.
From an era when good people - regardless of their political persuasions - could be found in our nation’s capital.
RIP General Powell
RIP General Powell
I don't disagree but those "suspicions" came too late. It took months for us to reposition our armed forces. Once deployed, we could not sustain them remaining in place. So the option was to strike or stand down. Standing down would have taken months to redeploy again. And, POTUS had congressional support (including from the current POTUS when he was a senator).
So it isn't like "new shit has come to light" and stopping the invasion was inconsequential.
I remember reading somewhere that Hussein was trying to bluff the Iranians into thinking he had nukes to avoid them taking advantage of his weakened state and instead bluffed his way into war with the US and allies. He never had to possess WMD to be in violation of the UN resolution(s). He also had to consent to having his facilities inspected, so when he kicked out the inspectors he opened himself up for what he got next.
RIP Secretary/GEN Powell. I never had the privilege of serving under his chain of command (missed his command of V Corps by a few years and was assigned to TRADOC while he was CG FORSCOM), but I always admired him (even from the other side of the political aisle). He was a great American.
that's right.
He actively said he had WMD. And he said he'd use them. People were scared to death in the run-up to the invasion. I recall reports of 20,000 body bags being shipped to Iraq for the initial surge.
But everyone wanted war: Clinton, Schumar, Biden...all voted for it. Pelosi did not, to her credit. But Democrats voted in majority for war and the Republicans did as well, en masse. The media was supporting it. The Euros supported it. Anything else is revisionist history. You can go look at the roll call votes and the comments at the time.
It was a colossal intel failure.
Our intelligence department got something wrong? Wow, there’s a shock.
Not sure everyone thought Hussein was hiding WMD buried in the desert. Other allied intelligence agencies didn't fall for the Neo-cons bull shit back in 2002-03. His United Nations speech justifying or selling an invasion and another endless waste of life was his low point. I always thought he knew the intel was flawed and never pursued a political career. Regardless of his decision he was a great man respected by all.
Well, Hussein did use WMD on his OWN people, so I guess he used all that he had? Yea, right. It's not hard to hide things that aren't very large, but very hard to find them, which was the only thing proven.
I think its hilarious that the narrative in the US is still that we found no WMD's in Iraq. For a little background I am a retired Marine EOD officer. I personally witnessed 1000+ chemical weapons extracted from one site. I believe the total reported was 5000 weapons found over several sites. Nearly 20 EOD techs suffered injuries removing them from the pits that they were buried in. Hell the NY Times did a piece on it but it never changed the narrative. I think if anyone would understand that, it would be a Penn State fan. The initial story is what is remembered, whether true or not.
Not only that, sanctions would have been lifted and he could have sold oil out the wazoo to rebuild his military. Those no fly zones would have gone away and Clinton would have had no reason to constantly bomb them. Look how much different the 90s would have been.
Although we may disagree on some opinions, which is fine, I applaud and respect this post. 👏
I remember that as the Iraq war quickly concluded Gaddafi in Libya decided to turn over all his weapons he was researching inside a hollowed out mountain. Our intel people were shocked he had some advanced nuclear materials and some suspected it came from Iraq. Of course, that could have been a rouse by the intel agencies to regain face after the Iraq debacle.
The US reneging on its deal and killing Quadafi ended any chance of the Iranians ever agreeing to give up their nuclear program. One of the absolute worst foreign policy debacles in the last 50 years. I don't know what idiot thought that was a good idea, but they should get the Quadafi treatment for that decision.
Yeah, that told the dictators of the world to never disarm and never trust the US.
A lot of really, really bad foreign policy decisions made around that time period.
Correct. He also was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. Too much for the body to handle.
God Bless him and his family!
COPIED FROM MY FACEBOOK POST:
RIP General Colin Powell - I want to express my appreciation to Linda Velez for living up to the requirements for naturalization as being a U.S. citizen with good moral character, which I vouched for her back in the 1990's. This photo is proof that all doors are open to opportunities for immigrants that adhere to our nation's legal path to citizenry. I couldn't be more proud of her positive contributions to our society.
RIP General Colin Powell - I want to express my appreciation to Linda Velez for living up to the requirements for naturalization as being a U.S. citizen with good moral character, which I vouched for her back in the 1990's. This photo is proof that all doors are open to opportunities for immigrants that adhere to our nation's legal path to citizenry. I couldn't be more proud of her positive contributions to our society.
I had the pleasure of meeting Colin Powell once. He was a speaker at a conference I attended. I was fortunate enough to express my appreciation for his service to our country and have a photo taken with him.
His talk was about leadership, and he fielded questions from the audience. He was asked to talk about each of the presidents he served under and describe their leadership qualities. He answered the question with deftness and without much political bias. He did say that his own person style most closely aligned with GHWB.
RIP General.
His talk was about leadership, and he fielded questions from the audience. He was asked to talk about each of the presidents he served under and describe their leadership qualities. He answered the question with deftness and without much political bias. He did say that his own person style most closely aligned with GHWB.
RIP General.
Not sure it matters to you but if keeping your identity on here separated from your real identity matters to you, Facebook let’s you search people by post so someone could paste this into the Facebook search bar and have your name and whatever else is publicly available about you on the platform real quick.
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Thanks, but I have nothing to hide as I've always attempted to tell the truth as I view it and I am a law abiding citizen... I just may not agree with certain people's positions.
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Met General Powell maybe 12 years ago. Very nice guy. Easy to talk to. RIP. He was a great representative of our country.
His only choice then would be to resign. He trusted Tenet and felt like he had good intel. Tenet did not have such. It was a damned if you do damned if you don't.
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