Originally posted by TourDeForce:
Originally posted by JaTo:
A lack of action didn't cause the current quagmire in Iraq; action based on faulty intel and the selective use of it did.



Sorry for the divergence, but an important point on that issue must be brought out...

JaTo, even you are buying into the faulty intel BS?? Say it ain't so!

I've said before the intel is a non-issue because we had declarations with discrepancies as proof of WMDs in Iraq. We didn't find much in the months following the invasion, but that doesn't mean the WMDs were never there. Those materials will turn up somewhere eventually - just like the radio active stainless steel that was being recycled in Europe and traced back through Jordan, Syria, then Iraq.



I'm buying into it to a small degree. I've always held the premise that we had authorization to go in with what the UN Security Council had in hand at the time (given they weren't about to do jack-s**t), as it was entirely up to Hussein to prove that he didn't have them and that he had to present a transparent view of Iraqi capability. The UN tallies stood by themselves and the fact that Hussein was coming up short by hundreds of tons everytime was grounds enough.

What continues to bother me is the "Christmas ornaments" that the Bush administration insisted on hanging around the key issue; Al-Qaeda links in Iraq (VERY shaky and circumstantial at best), the premise that Iraq was months, not years away from meaningful nuclear weapons development, etc., etc. What even further bothers me is how the CIA facilitated these views; granted, I think George Tenet had a pre-disposed view towards Iraq (much like the Bush administration) and presented a lop-sided case that wasn't a full disclosure.

How else do we explain Powell in front of the UN? How do we explain mis-statement after mis-statement on Iraqi weapons capabilities from Rumsfeld? How do we explain the "slam dunk" comment from Tenet?

No, we had solid reasoning to go into Iraq before all of this but in the process shot ourselves in the foot and it was the CIA feeding material up the chain that steered decisions...

JaTo e-Tough Guy Missouri City, TX 99 Contour SVT #143/2760 00 Corvette Coupe