| ▲ | comrade1234 7 hours ago |
| > America’s spies had told President George W. Bush that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted a nuclear-weapons program and that Iraq possessed biological weapons and mobile production facilities, as well as stockpiles of chemical weapons. That's not true at all. The intelligence community reported that there were no weapons of mass destruction but then the White House got involved in the analysis and brought politics into it and changed the reports. |
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| ▲ | sheikhnbake 7 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| It should also be mentioned that a significant amount of Iraq's chemical weapons were given to Iraq by the US. Iraq destroyed the munitions they hadn't already used in Iran or against the Kurds. Then UNMOVIC was sent to Iraq to inventory and account for all of the destroyed munitions. The head of the UN team repeatedly reported that the inventory of destroyed munitions and verification of compliance with UN mandates was a matter of months. The invasion of Iraq was announced shortly after. |
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| ▲ | srean 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | Iran has been on the receiving end of those weapons of mass destruction. They have lost 30 to 50 thousand people to those US bankrolled chemical weapons attacks and its still an openly grieved unhealed wound in Iranian society. Most cities have graves, cemeteries, memorials were families still grieve and remember their dead. Notably, Iran never retaliated with chemical weapons. Could have a common root cause that later led to a fatwa against developing nukes. I am surprised that the lay American gets so surprised that they do not like the American administration so much. Add to that the fact that US upended their parliamentary democracy with a sponsored coup, that the US shot down one of their domestic passenger jets in flight with no apologies forthcoming. | | |
| ▲ | pjc50 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The Iran-Iraq war is one of the nastier parts of the 20th century post-WW2 era, with huge casualties, and has been somewhat tragically forgotten. Perhaps because it wasn't entirely the fault of the US, although they did arm Saddam Hussein at that point. As was Iran-Contra. Oliver North should still be in jail, not a talking head on the propaganda channel. | | |
| ▲ | karmakurtisaani 43 minutes ago | parent [-] | | > The Iran-Iraq war is one of the nastier parts of the 20th century post-WW2 era, with huge casualties, and has been somewhat tragically forgotten. Perhaps because it wasn't entirely the fault of the US Nah, mate. We mainly remember the history that touches us. The Iran-Iraq war is surely not forgotten in their countries, but its impact on the West was limited, so we don't really talk about it. |
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| ▲ | sheikhnbake 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > I am surprised that the lay American gets so surprised that they do not like the American administration so much. Don't be. Most americans can't read above a 6th grade level |
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| ▲ | V__ 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Especially Cheney pushed hard for this, ignored the intelligence communities assessments, then got his own source, a burned source, Ahmed Chalabi to fabricate reasons for an invasion. |
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| ▲ | padjo 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Yeah this almost frames it as an honest mistake when it was actually a fait accompli. The decision to invade was made and some pretext was generated. |
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| ▲ | griffzhowl 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| In the UK the main deception was the farcical Iraq Dossier, aka "the dodgy dossier", put together by Blair's propaganda chief Alaister Campbell. Colin Powell had seen it before release but not sure what role it played in the US https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Dossier |
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| ▲ | pjc50 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It's difficult now to find the "Project for a new American Century" documents that were online in that era, but they described a planned attack on Iran through Iraq. That is, the Iraq war was supposed to be the first step towards the invasion they'd desired since 1979. |
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| ▲ | zozbot234 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | Except they didn't try that after all. Which suggests that maybe they knew it would be a terrible idea. |
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| ▲ | swingboy 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Maybe by 'America's spies' they mean Mossad? |
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| ▲ | ahartmetz 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Colin Powell's WMD dog and pony show in front of the UN council looked really fishy at the time, as if it was being sabotaged by the people who had to make up all that bullshit. Of course, that didn't matter neither because GWB simply WANTED to invade. Side note: Colin Powell always seemed like one of the more reasonable people in the Bush administration, and he had the decency to later criticize and apologize for his own actions. |
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| ▲ | peebee67 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I remember the set of his shoulders and generally pained body language during that address. He knew it was bullshit, and knew that the world could tell that he was bullshitting. They sent him because out of the four (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, and Powell), he was the only one regarded as somewhat reliable. He sold his soul that day and regretted it almost instantly. I agree that the people who put him up to it were also setting him up as they knew he already wasn't really with them on this thing. They were politicians, after all. I have no sympathy for the personal toll it took on him. He's a war criminal like the rest. | |
| ▲ | red-iron-pine 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Colon Powell was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during Iraq I and knew damn well that Iraq II was based on BS. He still sold it in front of the UN -- he could have resigned. Apologies don't make missiles go back in silos or resurrect dead people. |
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| ▲ | srean 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Yup. People were being pressured. Fired. To get them to state what the Bush administration wanted them to state. |
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| ▲ | jen729w 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I remember the march in London. A staggering number of people. Makes a mockery of any modern-day ‘protest’. Made not a jot of difference. In Tony went anyway. Shame. |
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| ▲ | ndsipa_pomu 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I'm still waiting for Blair to be sentenced for his war crimes | |
| ▲ | guzfip 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Makes a mockery of any modern-day ‘protest’. > Made not a jot of difference Yeah, that’s probably why. | | |
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| ▲ | SanjayMehta 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
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