As A Wise Man, Umm, Guy, Once Said

The belief that Iraq might have acquired more Chemical Weapons in the years no one was paying attention to him might have been widespread at the time by Americans, however, not that many people were biting off the bit to go to war so much so that they couldn't let the process of the weapons inspections play itself out and just when it was looking like it wasn't going their way, decide they just had to go to keep from us from an attack in the form of "mushroom clouds." Moreover, there was plenty of descent in the intelligence reports to spread enough doubt to at least wait until the weapons report and the UN thing got finished doing what they were sent in Iraq to do. In other words they rushed into war regardless of the wisdom of caution of which they had plenty of reason to wait and then said basically, "well we didn't know, oops."

Found it as reprint at Libanvision. The interview really seems to have been in French and not in English as your quotation suggests. (If it is a translation, it should be done correctly.) And there's more than those sentences in the original version (if Libanvision archived the interview correctly)

There was hysteria in the air at the time Bush laid out his blanket of lies. Many politicians were stampeded into voting his way. But the underlying lie was always so and cannot be changed, ever.

Tito and Saddam were necessary monsters

Fixed. Because idiots set up national boundaries which make no sense.

I told you the lie(s) but you refuse to look at the forest because your vision is blocked by the trees. I can't help what appears to me to be willful ignorance. You appear to be too smart to for this, so I can only guess ideological blinders.

You suggested the lie was that Iraq probably had WMD.

What is your evidence that Bush didn't actually believe this commonly held and not unreasonable idea?

Brandon, many people have explained this to you, unfortunately we can not understand it for you.

Brandon, many people have explained this to you, unfortunately we can not understand it for you.

The idea that no one was paying attention to Iraq is specious. You may not have been paying attention, but following Gulf I, a no fly zone was established and Saddam was contained. Every so often Iraqi fighters would violate the space, but US fighters could easily handle them. Saddam needed to save face, every so often he would test boundaries to prevent the surrounding crazy Arabs states from invading.

I remember vividly watching Bush in an address to the American people as he laid the ground work leading up to justification to invade Iraq. He alluded to all the atrocities Saddam perpetrated prior to his invasion into Kuwait. Bush 41, beat the Iraqis back and basically neutered Saddams WMD ambitions. President Clinton foiled an assassination attempt by Saddam aimed at George H. W. Bush. I don't recall conservative zealots singing Clinton's praises, but I
do understand how easy it would be for a dry drunk to be easily led by a band of appointed zealots to mangle the intelligence.

I began working for DOD during LBJ administration, but I've never, ever seen anything like Wolfowitz or Cheney hammering the intelligence community, demanding to cherry pick raw intell in an effort to prove the unprovable. It was like working for jealous spouses who already dug into the idea their spouse was cheating and glommed onto the slimmest thread of evidence to prove their warped idea of truth. I don't know if Bush really thought there was a honest threat of WMD, or he was convinced by hawkish lackeys eager to play presidential partners.

The TRUTH, it turns out, was that there were no WMD's so the administration repackaged it as regime change.

The sad fact is, that even though other countries may have brutal dictators, Tito kept the former Yugoslavia from descending into chaos, and Saddam prevented religious factions from destroying Iraq. Tito and Saddam were monsters, but at least we were not sending young Americans or young Allies off to be killed in the vainglorious attempt to bring our version of democracy to the oppressed.

Oh, hang on a mo, Clinton was finally shamed into restoring order in the splintered areas much like the UN was finally sent into Rwanda to stop the genocide.

It's easy to take the moral high road when you don't have skin in the game, you may reconsider this crusader mentality if the US is forced to bring back the draft.

I think that your translation is possible but out of the context.
It's to be seen as a backup to the original question and Chirac's full response to it .... and actually, just on a minor note, you could have mentioned that it your quote is a translation from French.

Saddam Hussein did not have WMDs, fact. When Bush said he did, he was lying, fact.

Now you can run around trying to find sources to justify that lie, and quotations from other idiots who also believed the lie, but it's still a lie.

Brandon9000 wrote:

What is your evidence that Bush didn't actually believe this commonly held and not unreasonable idea?

it was not commonly held outside of a particular US population

it was not a reasonable idea/belief

if Bush was provided with such poor intelligence and was somehow unable to find out the truth - which was covered in media around the world , you're saying something even more disturbing about his presidency than him simply lying

Twelve years is some rush!