Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

It's Everybody Else

I recall watching a tv show where someone was in court being cross examined. The defendant gave the usual "Everybody else has it wrong, you've got to believe me." Explanation as to why all the evidence points his way. Today the NYTimes reported on the US report on Iraq In which it was found that Iraq had "illiminated illicit arms in the 90's"

quote:
Iraq had destroyed its illicit weapons stockpiles within months after the Persian Gulf war of 1991, and its ability to produce such weapons had significantly eroded by the time of the American invasion in 2003, the top American inspector for Iraq said in a report made public Wednesday.

The report by the inspector, Charles A. Duelfer, intended to offer a near-final judgment about Iraq and its weapons, said Iraq, while under pressure from the United Nations, had "essentially destroyed'' its illicit weapons ability by the end of 1991, with its last secret factory, a biological weapons plant, eliminated in 1996.

... Mr. Duelfer said he had concluded that between 1991 and 2003, Mr. Hussein had in effect sacrificed Iraq's illicit weapons to the larger goal of winning an end to United Nations sanctions. But he also argued that Mr. Hussein had used the period to try to exploit avenues opened by the sanctions, especially the oil-for-food program, to lay the groundwork for a plan to resume weapons production if sanctions were lifted.

In addition, the report concluded that Mr. Hussein had deliberately sought to maintain ambiguity about whether it had illicit weapons, mainly as a deterrent to Iran, its rival.

...At the time of the American invasion, Mr. Duelfer said in the report, Iraq did not possess chemical and biological weapons, was not seeking to reconstitute its nuclear program, and was not making any active effort to gain those abilities. Even if Iraq had sought to restart its weapons programs in 2003, the report said, it could not have produced militarily significant quantities of chemical weapons for at least a year, and it would have required years to produce a nuclear weapon.

"Saddam Hussein ended the nuclear program in 1991 following the gulf war,'' Mr. Duelfer said in the report. It said American inspectors in Iraq had "found no evidence to suggest concerted efforts to restart the program.''




In response James Wilkinson, Deputy national security advisor, said:

"There is no doubt that Saddam was a threat to our nation, and there is no doubt that he had W.M.D. capability, and the Duelfer report is very clear on these points,''


Exactly what report did he read? So here we have Kofi Annan stating that the war in Iraq was/is illegal under international law. We have a report that clearly shows what many of us already knew and without a doubt was known by members of the administration, and there is no treason or impeachment hearings scheduled? Clinton gets head in his office and we get Ken Starr for years, Bush spends nearly $200 Billion on an illegal and baseless war which causes the death of 1000 US troops and disables many thousands more, not to mention the huge civilian casualties in Iraq and not one impeachment hearing is scheduled?

I'm going to give the Republicans their due credit, They play a mean game of Chess. They covered their king very very well. Democrats should take notes.