Sarin Gas found in Iraq

[HueyPilot]

Oh please

The problem isn't with Hussein shelling DC from Iraq with a 155MM artillery shell. The problem was in Hussein allowing that stuff to go to terror organizations.

Dispute it if you like, but Hussein allowed Zarhqari and al Qaeda to train in Iraq...he may not have been an overt supporter, but he allowed it. Also, Hussein funded various Palestinian terror organizations such as Hamas and the Hezbollah. One of the conduits for this money was through Zarhqari.

Hussein wasn't a fervent Islamist. But he did support the Islamists financially, if not for religious cause, for the purpose of appearing to be religious, thus helping cement his power base.

In foreign policy reviews we've done, there are essentially four major (read major, because there are plenty of minor problems) problems in the middle east/islamic heartland:

Taliban (allowing al Qaeda training and funding), which we took care of.

Hussein (mad man who funds terror to appeal to his people), which we are in the process of taking care of.

Palestine (obvious).

Iran (Radical theocracy, which is enduring an internal struggle between moderates and hardliners), we're currently in a wait-and-see posture with them.

I figured a long time ago (before the war started) that once we found WMD, the folks who were crying "there are no WMD" or "Bush lied" would simply switch gears and say "it's only a little" or "no REAL threat existed with just a bunch of silly, unaccountable, uncontrolled Sarin".

 

[enigma]

I just surfed over to the ABC, CBS, NBC news websites and the Sarin find isn't headlined there, imagine that.

But it really doesn't matter, Iraq had the WMD at one time, and never proved that they properly disposed of it. Therefore, we had to deal with it as if it were still existant.

enigma

 

[Dizel8]

"that once we found WMD."

Hate to burst your bubble, but one single shell is hardly what were being claimed he possesed.

Listen, I think we did the right thing, but the justification was at the time, that Iraq was filled with WMD. In the end, they made it sound like with every single footstep, you would bang your toe on WMD. This clearly was not the case.

"But it really doesn't matter, Iraq had the WMD at one time, and never proved that they properly disposed of it. Therefore, we had to deal with it as if it were still existant."

"Kay, who led a U.S. team hunting for weapons, said it appears that the shell was one of tens of thousands produced for the Iran-Iraq war, which Saddam was supposed to destroy or turn over to the United Nations. In many cases, he said, Iraq did comply.

"It is hard to know if this is one that just was overlooked — and there were always some that were overlooked, we knew that — or if this was one that came from a hidden stockpile," Kay said. "I rather doubt that because it appears the insurgents didn't even know they had a chemical round."

Bush has been backing off something fierce, from the WMD justification. Now it is about Sadam being a evil man (true) and the support he have given terrorism (also true), but that is not what he was incesssantly pointing out before the invasion.

CIA has admitted, that they were overzealous with their claims and that the Iraq scientist, from whom they received some intel, are simply not reliable or were downright fabricating stories.

If you are concerned about how he assisted AQ and OBL, then you should be really concerned about what the Saudis did, but let us just glaze that over.

"All they woould need to do that woould be an ICBM purchased from North Korea or some former soviet generals." Well, then NK is an equally credible threat, if not higher on the list. What are we waiting for, lets invade yet another country, based on what they might be capable of. China has ICBMs and not overly friendly to the US, Iran is working on WMD, both Pakistan and India has WMD. Where does it end? Lets preemptively strike any and all countries, for fear of what they might one day be capable of.

 

[surplus1]

It was never really a question of "if" we would find WMD in Iraq, it was only a question of when.

When public policy is based on the concept that "the end justifies the means", we will always find a "means". Whatever is necessary to achieve the desired "end" will be "found" or invented when the need arises.

Right now there is a much greater need to legitimize the invasion of Iraq than there was on the day it began. It should not come as a surprise that justifications will begin to surface. What form they will take is dependent on the winds of politics.

 

[MW44]

I find it interesting that the very monday after Bush's approval rating is at his all time low and he is trailing Kerry in the polls a single shell is found near the airport containing a WMD. I'm sure they'll drag Bin Laden out in chains during the republican convention.

 

[EagleRJ]

MW44

You're right, the CIA gave that chemical shell to a terrorist in Iraq and asked him to attack our troops with it. Anything for a poll number! Who do you think President Bush is, Bill Clinton?

From a lefty news service:

[Two former weapons inspectors — Hans Blix and David Kay — said the shell was likely a stray weapon that had been scavenged by militants and did not signify that Iraq had large stockpiles of such weapons.]

That's one of the dumbest things I've ever read! Of course the shell was scavenged, but you don't start up a complex and expensive WMD program just to produce one shell! Blix and Kay can't possibly know if the shell was a leftover from Iran/Iraq War stock that escaped destruction by Saddam, or if it was recently manufactured.

It's just the latest WMD find in Iraq that is being largely ignored by the media. The media seems to be waiting to find a huge hidden warehouse, with a sign over the door that says, 'Saddam's Secret WMD Stockpile- Infidels Stay Out!'. It's not going to happen like that. We've been finding WMD's every week over there, but few are taking notice.

 

[Dizel8]

"We've been finding WMD's every week over there, but few are taking notice."

Source please?

 

[wingnutt]

Right now there is a much greater need to legitimize the invasion of Iraq than there was on the day it began. It should not come as a surprise that justifications will begin to surface. What form they will take is dependent on the winds of politics.

hold up a sec...are you saying that now that theres "public outrage" over going into iraq, anything found from here until the end is suspect as being fabricated...or am i reading that wrong???

 

[SupraZachAir]

Seems simple to me. Everyone said he had them. UN, Clinton, France, certain presidential candidates, etc...

So where did they (WMD's) go? If he destroyed them, all he needed to do was say, "Looky here: destroyed!" Thats it. That not being the case we have 3 options:
1) He still has them.
2) He conveniently misplaced them into neighboring countries.
3) He never had them, and the whole world was wrong in saying he did.

But why look at the situation logically when we can just blame Bush.

 

[AeroBoy]

The jury is still out...even Rummy says the tests are not final. Read the following excerpts from the AP story:

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cautioned that the sarin results were from a field test, which can be imperfect and more analysis needed to be done.

"We have to be careful," he told an audience in Washington Monday afternoon. Rumsfeld said it many take some time to determine precisely what the chemical was, what its presence means in terms of risks to U.S. forces and other implications.

The team has run into a number of dead ends. In January, for example, field tests on discovered mortar shells near Qurnah in southern Iraq indicated a blister agent was in the shells. But follow-up tests indicated that the munitions did not contain the agents, though U.S. officials said Saddam had such agents in the early to mid-1990s.

Officials say there are chemicals associated with certain munitions, such as phosphorous, that can produce false positives. Some field tests are designed to favor a positive reading, erring on the side of caution to protect soldiers.