The “No WMD” Lie: An Addendum
In an e-mail “S.O.B.er” Porkopolis pointed me to a post at Captain Ed’s place about documents translated by one Joseph Shahda relating to chemical materials hidden in Iraq near Fallujah by Saddam Hussein in 2002.
This led me (HT FreeRepublic) to this piece at American Thinker about four other sites that may have chemical and biological weapons.
There’s lots of good material at the links, and I would encourage you to read them, but here’s the detailed point: All of what is discussed is over and above what Richard Miniter reported in his book “Disinformation” in October, all of which I sourced to actual media reports at this BizzyBlog post in early November when I was challenged. What has been documented there has, with one possible exception out of five, not been refuted.
To the bigger point: Please don’t bother me with claims that there were no WMDs in Iraq. That is so 2003 (and of course contrary to claims made by everyone, his brother, his sister, and John Kerry [see Return of the Conservatives] from 1998 through 2002; go to the updates and comments at the BizzyBlog post for more details).
Remember, the core leftist argument has been “NO WMDs,” not a few, not some, but absolutely none — which is obviously, absolutely wrong. I’m noticing an attempt at historical revisionism that the Left’s claim was really “no stockpiles” of WMDs. Nice try, people; no sale. You made your “No WMDs” bed, and you get to sleep in it.
Good work. They’ve got you right where they want you. Here is the way this works. The White House, even though they flip-flopped and changed their story long ago about why we were supposed to have invaded Iraq, doesn’t like the fact that no WMD were found because you see that makes George Bush a war criminal. So the Department of Defense dumps about ten thousand untranslated and unsubstantiated documents on the internet where those that are able are free to come up with their own translations and pass them on to bloggers like you who latch onto anything that says what you want to hear. Then you circulate this horse crap around on the internet and pass it off to gullible right wingers as some kind of confirmed truth. They, being conservatives, swallow it hook, line, and sinker. Meanwhile the Bush white House keeps a careful distance from the bogus “documents” so they don’t get accused of lying to the public again about mushroom clouds. They of course refrain from either confirming or denying the authenticity of the documents hoping that people like you will fail to realize that by refusing to confirm their authenticity they are automatically denying it. If there was anything to these “documents” you can be sure Karl Rove would have pasted them all over George Bush’s naked body and sent him out in front of the press to dance a jig.
Actually you should try to keep up with your own talking points because the WMD ship sailed long ago. The official position of the White House is that the “CIA” got the intel wrong on WMD. Of course they’re lying about that too but that’s a different long story. At any rate the proof as they say is in the pudding. There aren’t any WMD in the evidence locker for Saddam Hussein’s trial. The crimes he is guilty of are not unlike the crimes George Bush is now guilty of. Wouldn’t it be a bit of poetic justice to see captian Mission Accomplished standing trial right beside Saddam for violating international law in attacking and occupying another sovereign nation that was incapable of posing any imminent threat to us. By the way, we helped write that law. The irony of Bush breaking the very law that we seek to impose on other nations is not lost on the rest of the world and will serve to fuel terrorism against us for generations to come.
Comment by Mike — June 15, 2006 @ 12:49 pm
Mike, I don’t give a crap what the WH has or hasn’t said in the past about WMD. I know what the MSM reported on 5 different occasions about found WMDs that Miniter wrote about. I know where they were sourced from, and I know (with one possible exception) that the items involved would be classified by any normal human as WMDs.
I don’t understand why the WH hasn’t said “we’ve found enough WMDs already.” I can’t read their minds. All I know is that NO ONE has been able to refute the claims made at the original post, Miniter has visited once and said essentially that what he has documented stands.
As for the mumbo jumbo about the docs recently found, again in terms of my underlying unrefuted claim (that WMDs were found, and therefore that the “No WMD” lie is a lie, no matter who is telling it or allowing it to slide by), which still stands, the new docs are irrelevant at worst and may reinforce my point at best when I get a chance to read more about them, or of them.
And the tired “imminent” threat argument has been punctured so many times it’s not worth wasting my time on it again.
But your comment will stand tall at this post as an example of moonbattery at its finest.
Comment by TBlumer — June 15, 2006 @ 12:56 pm
Gee….you sound just like George Bush. He’s not well know either for his ability to listen to informed assessments on important matters. He just believes what he believes. That’s pretty much it. Like Colbert said of him recently “He’s steadfast….he believes the same thing on Wednesday that he believed on Monday….no matter what happened on Tuesday.”
Maybe if Bush had been a little less pig headed about sticking “resolutely” to what he had already determined to believe, this whole fiasco in Iraq could have been avoided.
Maybe if he had taken the time to actually READ his PDB’s and the caveats on the CIA WMD intel he would have known that most of the intelligence community believed that Saddams WMD making days had ended a decade earlier and that whatever weapons still might be lying around were obsolete and inoperable. Instead he went with what he “wanted” to believe and simply ignored anything that did not justify what he was already determined to do. As a result Americas finest are being slaughtered every day for what is essentially a lie.
It is a GOP talking point to try to discredit the imminent threat claims. It does not matter what the wording was….imminent threat, immediate threat, mushroom clouds, ect. The intent was obviously to scare the hell out of everybody with a threat that turned out to be nonexistent.
You maintain that the weapons have been found. OK then, where are they. We ought to be able to see and feel these weapons shouldn’t we. I mean they have to physically exist somewhere don’t they? Perhps you can link me to a photograph of these mythical weapons because I’m really curious about them now. I know, maybe you can put on your tinfoil hat and project the images of them straight to my head.
“moonbats”….how original. Did you just think of that?
Comment by Mike — June 15, 2006 @ 1:52 pm
Wow, Mike, you’re violating the first rule of holes. You just keep digging.
Read my original post. WMDs were found, reported on, seen, and haven’t been refuted. Period.
Your calling Iraq and the WOT a “fiasco” shows you wear the moonbat label proudly. That’s why I used it; it fits.
I’ll spare you further embarrassment and won’t post anything further that you send unless it’s substantive, which IMO your previous two comments have not been. They have been great examples of vapidness, though, but you’re about tapped out on that.
And, yes, as benevolent dictator on this blog, I get to decide what goes up here. If that bugs you, you can always start or post on your own blog.
Comment by TBlumer — June 15, 2006 @ 2:30 pm