Duelfer's report shows that Iraq was justified

I'm linking to the discussion of the Duelfer report as posted at Little Green Footballs, because Charles's analysis is spot-on.

The major media spin (see this story, for instance) is that the Duelfer report "proves" that Iraq had no WMD. Therefore, the logical conclusion is the usual "Bush lied - wrong war/wrong place/wrong time" nonsense.

But Duelfer's report makes two things very clear:

1. Although Saddam had ceased manufacturing WMD's, and had made his stockpiles of nerve gas and germ warfare agents disappear sometime before the US invasion last year, he still kept scientists, technicians, raw materials, and manufacturing equipment at his disposal. The poison factories could have been restarted in weeks. Or more frighteningly, the know-how and equipment could have been sold or loaned to any one of a dozen terrorist groups. I'd still call that a threat, and a serious one at that.

2. Saddam was (and still is) an unstable madman who suffers from an insane obsession over Iran. He recently told interrogators that the progress of Iran's nuclear (weapons) program would have led him to restart his own program. A former Iraqi nuclear scientist told the New York times last month that if Saddam had given the word, the mothballed program could have been up and running within a month.

The AP dispatch on the Duelfer report said:

But Duelfer also supports Bush’s argument that Saddam remained a threat. Interviews with the toppled leader and other former Iraqi officials made clear that Saddam had not lost his ambition to pursue weapons of mass destruction and hoped to revive his weapons program if U.N. sanctions were lifted, his report said.

“What is clear is that Saddam retained his notions of use of force, and had experiences that demonstrated the utility of WMD,” Duelfer told Congress.

And PowerLine Blog has posted this interesting excerpt from the Duelfer report:

Saddam asked in 1999 how long it would take to build a production line for CW [chemical weapons] agents, accordingto the former Minister of Military Industrialization. Huwaysh investigated and responded that experts could readily prepare a production line for mustard, which could be produced within six months. VX and Sarin production was more complicated and would take longer. Huwaysh relayed this answer to Saddam, who never requested follow-up information. An Iraqi CW expert separately estimated Iraq would require only a few days to start producing mustard—if it was prepared to sacrifice the production equipment.

Imad Husayn ‘Ali Al ‘Ani, closely tied to Iraq’s VX program, alleged that Saddam had been looking for chemical weapons scientists in 2000 to begin production in a second location, according to reporting.

Harmless, right?

How many times had Saddam lied to the US, the UN, and the UN weapons inspectors? Saddam buried or destroyed all evidence that would have confirmed that he eliminated his WMD stockpiles. Saddam ordered his agents to inflitrate the UN weapons inspection program. Saddam continually denied inspectors access to facilities, records, and personnel. Saddam deported the weapons inspectors in 1998. Saddam continually engaged in a pattern of suspicious behavior, which culminated in convoys of Iraqi trucks crossing over into Syria in the days just prior to the invasion. We still have not been told what those trucks were carrying.

Col. Khadaffi (sic) voluntarily gave up Libya's WMD programs after the Iraqi invasion. He opened up his country freely to international inspectors and allowed them to verify that his WMD and nuclear facilities had been dismantled, and that his stockpile of chemical and biological agents had been destroyed. Prevailing wisdom says that the Colonel saw Saddam being dragged out of his hidey-hole and, in a moment of epiphany, decided that his own fate would be much more respectable. Saddam never cooperated with anyone, and provided absolutely no assurance that he had abandoned his WMD programs. Factoring in his narcissism and mental unstability, I can't see any way that a sane person could conclude that Saddam was not a threat.

And finally, there is the whole Oil for Food scandal:

Saddam Hussein believed he could avoid the Iraq war with a bribery strategy targeting Jacques Chirac, the President of France, according to devastating documents released last night.

Memos from Iraqi intelligence officials, recovered by American and British inspectors, show the dictator was told as early as May 2002 that France - having been granted oil contracts - would veto any American plans for war.
...
To keep America at bay, he focusing [sic] on Russia, France and China - three of the five UN Security Council m bers with the power to veto war. Politicians, journalists and diplomats were all given lavish gifts and oil-for-food vouchers.

Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, told the ISG that the "primary motive for French co-operation" was to secure lucrative oil deals when UN sanctions were lifted. Total, the French oil giant, had been promised exploration rights.

Iraqi intelligence officials then "targeted a number of French individuals that Iraq thought had a close relationship to French President Chirac," it said, including two of his "counsellors" [sic] and spokesman for his re-election campaign.

Based on the Duelfer report, Saddam's overall strategy seemed to be: 1) waiting until the sanctions program collapsed, 2) bribing the French, Germans, and Russians into preventing the US from taking military action, and 3) restoring his WMD program immediately after the sanctions program collapsed.

To summarize: sanctions didn't work.

Based on this well-documented knowledge, it should be clear, beyond any doubt, that trying to establish an alliance with France, Germany, and Russia in order to deal with Middle Eastern affairs is an unbelievably idiotic move.

Unfortunately, it seems that we have an unbelievable idiot running for President.

Comments

[Gale]

We went to war and killed tens of thousands of people over someone's notions?? This is ok with you??
If the American people had been told this before the war, Saddam has notions of one day having wmd's again, although all evidence proves he has none, and hasn't for a decade,there is no way they would have supported the war. We were lied to.

[Health News]

Thank you for introducing me the wonderful information.And .....Totally boring.!