Stuart Cohen's defense of the CIA National Intelligence Estimate which I referenced in the previous post also has this rather striking comment:
Those who conclude that no threat existed because actual weapons have not yet been found do not understand the significance posed by biological and chemical warfare programs in the hands of tyrants.
Let's see. If Iraq didn't have chemical or biological weapons, just how did they present any kind of imminent threat? This seems like an attempt to boost the Bush Administration's argument that Saddam had weapons programs, though not the actual weapons.
Although they've yet to find much of any evidence for ongoing programs even.
The article concludes with an argument that maybe someday, somewhere in Iraq we might still find some WMDs. And it concludes with this odd and disturbing paragraph:
<< We must keep in mind that the search for WMD cannot and should not be about the reputation of US Intelligence or even just about finding weapons. At its core, men and women from across the Intelligence Community continue to focus on this issue because understanding the extent of Iraq's WMD efforts and finding and securing weapons and all of the key elements that make up Baghdad's WMD programs— before they fall into the wrong hands—is vital to our national security. If we eventually are proven wrong—that is, that there were no weapons of mass destruction and the WMD programs were dormant or abandoned—the American people will be told the truth; we would have it no other way. >>
The problem for Bush's preventive war doctrine is that unless the prewar intelligence on threats of this nature has a very high degree of credibility, it will be difficult for Congress, the people or our allies to put much stock in it.
2 comments:
They weren't talking about weapons programs or ambitions in the buildup to the war. They were talking about huge stockpiles (and had pictures to show exactly where they were.) They were talking about Saddam calling out chemical and biological attacks within 45 minutes, and nuclear weapons within a year. They weren't talking about links to al-Queda, they were talking about Saddam handing weapons over to them?
Who says that elephants never forget?
That's really true. Bush in his State of the Union address and Colin Powell in his presentation to the UN gave very specific numbers of quantities of deadly WMDs and armaments of various kinds. They turned out to be bogus claims. Not just off in the estimates. Bogus. It's really disgraceful. And now Americans, Iraqis, Brits, Spaniards, Italians, South Koreans, and Japanese are dying because of the lies. - Bruce
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