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Bush may have lied, but don't forget that Saddam Hussein used WMDs and wanted his neighbors to think he might have them to project regional power. So the lie wa
by mgamache 6y ago
Bush may have lied, but don't forget that Saddam Hussein used WMDs and wanted his neighbors to think he might have them to project regional power. So the lie was believable and not manufactured from whole cloth. Did they believe it? Some probably did, but other used it to forward a proactive foreign policy to remake the middle east. It's one area where conservatives underestimate the cost of change.
- jasonwatkinspdx 6y agoWho we should have believed is the UN inspection team. That's literally their role in things. But they didn't support the narrative Bush/Blair wanted. I think you'll have a very hard time finding anyone besides the neocon camp that think 2003 somehow reshaped the middle east for the better.
- mgamache 6y agoSaddam played games with the inspection teams (remember the 'presidential sites'). Did Blix get a comprehensive look and verify maybe, but that was after 10 years of obfuscation. Also, you know who thought he might have nerve gas? The Kurds. And I wasn't arguing the invasion was good or bad, I don't think we'll ever know. At least not for a few generations. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4996218 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=499621...
- jasonwatkinspdx 6y agoSaddam was in permanent time out. The US could have protected the Kurds as much as it liked simply by expanding the no fly zone into further restrictions. None of that necessitated deception to invasion to topple a country that won't recover for generations.