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The big difference is that there was a very effective disinformation campaign that led the world to believe that Saddam had WMDs and might use them. In the post

The big difference is that there was a very effective disinformation campaign that led the world to believe that Saddam had WMDs and might use them. In the post 9/11 times, many countries believe this was sufficient to justify the war and a coalition was built. It took a good while to know for sure that there were no WMDs... oops. So ya the war was wrong and dumb and we should have had more and better info to justify it before invading but didn't seems so clear at the time. Plus Saddam was a dictator and had very few friends so nobody was too bothered.

throw10920 5y ago
> Saddam had WMDs and might use them Saddam is known to have had chemical weapons, the line between which and "true WMDs" is pretty thin, if it exists at all. I don't think that there's much of a "disinformation" campaign here if the New York Times (as well as a third-party international organization) repeatedly documented the existence of said weapons. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/world/middleeast/questions-answers-abandoned-chemical-weapons-in-iraq.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/world/middleeast/question... https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/world/middleeast/thousands-of-iraq-chemical-weapons-destroyed-in-open-air-watchdog-says-.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/world/middleeast/thousand... https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/world/cia-is-said-to-have-bought-and-destroyed-iraqi-chemical-weapons.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/world/cia-is-said-to-have... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/03/world/middleeast/chemical-weapons-iraq-pentagon-secrets.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/03/world/middlee... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middlee...

throw10920 5y ago

> Saddam had WMDs and might use them Saddam is known to have had chemical weapons, the line between which and "true WMDs" is pretty thin, if it exists at all. I don't think that there's much of a "disinformation" campaign here if the New York Times (as well as a third-party international organization) repeatedly documented the existence of said weapons. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/world/middleeast/questions-answers-abandoned-chemical-weapons-in-iraq.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/world/middleeast/question... https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/world/middleeast/thousands-of-iraq-chemical-weapons-destroyed-in-open-air-watchdog-says-.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/world/middleeast/thousand... https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/world/cia-is-said-to-have-bought-and-destroyed-iraqi-chemical-weapons.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/world/cia-is-said-to-have... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/03/world/middleeast/chemical-weapons-iraq-pentagon-secrets.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/03/world/middlee... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middlee...