What our side has done is liberate millions of people. Our side has given a chance for millions of people to live a life of their choosing. Our side has given millions opportunities they never would have known before..
The following paragraph states, were
still sifting through a mountain of documents. Of course we would liked to have found them. This still doesn't take away from the premise we went to war on.
Pres Bush wasn't the only one who said it! After the stockpiles weren't found, you can't say Pres lied about anything. It is easy to accuse him after all the politicians, Jorda, Egypt and the entire world said the exact same thing.
Hans Blix is an appeasing a-hole! It's all coming out! With the reports today, it said
Quote:Mr Duelfer told a Senate committee yesterday the Saddam regime "had made progress in eroding sanctions, and had it not been for September 11, things would have taken a very different turn for the regime". He pointed out the report was comprehensive but "not final" as a team of 900 linguists were still sifting through a mountain of documents.
Saddam was supposed to prove he destroyed them, if he didn't have them. That still makes the invasion just. There is still the question as to how he destroyed them or where there are now. Saddam never came clean, hindered the inspections by not allowing the inspectors to interview the scientists without minders, by not allowing surveillance over land and never shown any documents proving he didn't have them.
You don't do anyone in Iraq or here any favors by trying to conclude the war in Iraq is unjust. You don't take into consideration the reasons. 12 years of resolutions, not abiding by the rules of the no-fly zone, his using WMD's to kill his own people and his neighbors, deceiving the entire region and the world, are all valid reasons to take him out. The world is better off without him in power. Thank God we did, if we didn't the sanctions may have been lifted and then we'd have to deal with an even worse threat than he already was.
Were you prepared to believe Saddam without any proof? I wasn't.
Quote:He suggested that only the ousted leader knew what his weapons plans were and that even close aides were uncertain whether Iraq had WMD or not.
The Duelfer report found that there had been no "identifiable group of WMD policy makers or planners separate from Saddam.
"Instead, his lieutenants understood WMD revival was his goal from their long association with Saddam and his infrequent but firm, verbal comments and directions to them."
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Saddam and the French Connection
FRASER NELSON, AND JAMES KIRKUP
Key points
Saddam bribery revealed
WMD said to have been destroyed
Blair accepts mistake over WMD
Key quote
"Just as I have had to accept that the evidence now is that there were not stockpiles of actual weapons ready to be deployed, I hope others have the honesty to accept that the report also shows that sanctions weren't working" - Tony Blair
SADDAM HUSSEIN believed he could avoid the Iraq war with a bribery strategy targeting Jacques Chirac, the President of France, according to devastating documents released last night.
Memos from Iraqi intelligence officials, recovered by American and British inspectors, show the dictator was told as early as May 2002 that France - having been granted oil contracts - would veto any American plans for war.
But the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), which returned its full report last night, said Saddam was telling the truth when he denied on the eve of war that he had any weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He had not built any since 1992.
The ISG, who confirmed last autumn that they had found no WMD, last night presented detailed findings from interviews with Iraqi officials and documents laying out his plans to bribe foreign businessmen and politicians.
Although they found no evidence that Saddam had made any WMD since 1992, they found documents which showed the "guiding theme" of his regime was to be able to start making them again with as short a lead time as possible."
Saddam was convinced that the UN sanctions - which stopped him acquiring weapons - were on the brink of collapse and he bankrolled several foreign activists who were campaigning for their abolition. He personally approved every one.
To keep America at bay, he focusing on Russia, France and China - three of the five UN Security Council members with the power to veto war. Politicians, journalists and diplomats were all given lavish gifts and oil-for-food vouchers.
Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, told the ISG that the "primary motive for French co-operation" was to secure lucrative oil deals when UN sanctions were lifted. Total, the French oil giant, had been promised exploration rights.
Iraqi intelligence officials then "targeted a number of French individuals that Iraq thought had a close relationship to French President Chirac," it said, including two of his "counsellors" and spokesman for his re-election campaign.
They even assessed the chances for "supporting one of the candidates in an upcoming French presidential election." Chirac is not mentioned by name.
A memo sent to Saddam dated in May last year from his intelligence corps said they met with a "French parliamentarian" who "assured Iraq that France would use its veto in the UN Security Council against any American decision to attack Iraq."
Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, last night said again that he was wrong to suggest Saddam had WMD - but asked the British public to accept that Iraq would probably have acquired such weapons if he had not acted.
However, the ISG uncovered millions of pages of documents and, after interviewing scores of captured Iraqis - including Mr Aziz - the report lays out what it says is were plans to end the United Nations sanctions then start to acquire weapons.
Saddam, it says, even fooled his own military chiefs into believing that he had WMD. This was designed to deter uprising from rebel Iraqis, on whom he deployed mustard gas in 1988, and aggressors in the Middle East.
Speaking during his trip to Ethiopia last night, the Prime Minister referred to his speech last week where he admitted being "wrong" in the main part of his case for war but right to see a gathering threat in Iraq.
"Just as I have had to accept that the evidence now is that there were not stockpiles of actual weapons ready to be deployed, I hope others have the honesty to accept that the report also shows that sanctions weren't working," he said.
