- Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld
Sunday, March 30, 2003
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Anyone who has a memory longer than a week remembers that the case for the Iraq war was based on the weapons of mass destruction Iraq possessed. To paraphrase lead U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, the United States had 100 percent certainty they existed, but, in retrospect, zero percent certainty where they were. So, because of this terrible threat, the United States built a powerful coalition including such nations as Eritrea, the Marshall Islands, and Tonga, and boldly marched to war.
After the world's most powerful military successfully dismantled Saddam Hussein's busted-down regime, Americans were told Iraq would pay for its own reconstruction. In 2001, Lawrence Lindsay, Bush's economic adviser, actually got in trouble for saying the war might be expensive. He said it might eventually cost $100 billion to $200 billion. He was also soon fired. White House budget director Mitch Daniels Daniels "corrected" him saying the costs would be between $50 billion and $60 billion. Then the president said we needed $87 billion just this year to do it. And Congress gave it to him.
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And the WMD? Rolf Ekeus, who headed the U.N. weapons-inspection team that worked in Iraq from 1992 to 1998, says that Hussein probably destroyed his stocks of chemical and biological weapons after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He, along with many others, doesn't believe Hussein maintained hidden stockpiles. Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, who surrendered to U.S. authorities on April 24, also says Iraq did not possess stocks of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons on the eve of the war. Many analysts have said that Iraq may also have bluffed possession of weapons of mass destruction to deter invasion. Perhaps the biggest bust of all came in a March 3, 2003 Newsweek that noted how star defector and Saddam's son-in-law Hussein Kamel said in August 1995, "All weapons-- biological, chemical, missile, nuclear, were destroyed." Despite all of this, the administration is still steadfast in its adherence to its intelligence.
As if the lack of WMD wasn't bad enough, the Pentagon has admitted (in a secret, leaked postwar report) that planning for the postwar occupation was minimal. Americans were told they would be greeted as liberators, but they have been met with protests and violence. Hundreds have died since President Bush played dress-up on May 1 and announced the end of major combat operations. The most recent report is available here. Many note how fighting Saddam distracts America from what should be its real priority: finding Osama bin Laden and fighting terrorism. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Truman didn't attack Korea.
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And yes, Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, and yes, his capture is a good thing, but before this administration's propaganda blitz, he was once one of our best friends. |
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| Here's
a 1983 photograph showing current Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein back when he was
a more cooperative homicidal dictator. |
"Washington has known for many years what kind of a regime Saddam led in Iraq. It is no secret that the United States helped finance Saddam's murderous regime even after it had full knowledge about his use of chemical weapons to slaughter Iraqi Kurds in Northern Iraq. But - determined that Iran would not win an Iran-Iraq war - the United States made a cold geopolitical calculation that he should stay in power in the 1980s. While Saddam's murder machine massacred tens of thousands of Kurds, the United States extended hundreds of millions of dollars in credits to his government.
Even after the first Gulf War in 1991, when Washington had an opportunity to depose Saddam, Bush père decided not to. Instead, he encouraged Iraqis to overthrow their own government. Americans watched from the sidelines just across the Kuwait border as Saddam's soldiers killed hundreds of thousands of regime opponents. We had called on Iraqis to rise up and then had done nothing to help them when Saddam came after them. Many mass graves in Iraq are filled with the bodies of those who took U.S. advice. Is it any wonder the Iraqi people have mixed feelings about today's liberators?"