Loren Pechtel

Because it was apparent that it wouldn't have been just a few more days. They were delaying because they didn't want to admit they had failed.

Loren Pechtel

We did not consider that their evidence of having destroyed them was anything like adequate. That's something Iraq *SHOULD* have been very cooperative about. The lack of cooperation says to me that he didn't destroy them all.

Sauron

You think it would have been more than a few days before they submitted their report?

Fine.

Show proof of this "apparent" fact.

Failed? At what?

You can't be held accountable for failing to find something, if that "something" doesn't exist in the first place.

Bill

Not quite. Don't forget the gas centrifuge parts and plans that were buried in that guy's rose garden for the past dozen years. That proves that Saddam was ready to dig up those rose bushes and build a nuclear bomb at any moment (yeah, right it does.....).

How long until they will be ready to admit that there were no weapons to be found? Certainly not until sometime after the first Monday in November, 2004 (which is election day, folks).

==========

I believe all of the many reports that state that Saddam did, in fact, destroy all of his remaining weapons and was only trying to hold onto the technology (plans; key parts; etc.), with the idea that he would restart the production of weapons as soon as he was let off the hook.

Now, does that constitute a sufficient rationale to attack Saddam when the bulk of the United Nations is against war? NO!

In my view, the better course of action would have been to simply pester Saddam with UN inspectors by the thousands until and after the day of his death, never letting him have the opportunity to reconstitute his weapons programs. If that had been done, there are hundreds of dead Americans and thousands of dead Iraqis who would be alive at the end of the Bush presidency who are either already dead, or who will die between now and then due to the fact that the United States has no clue as to how to go about governing Iraq while avoiding voluminous and continuous bloodshed.

I can only hope that whomever inherits this mess from Bush has a better idea of how to get the United States the heck out of there!

== Bill

Zar

I can only imagine what kind of shennanigans will get pulled if and when Bush gets re-elected. Without another election to worry about, its open season. A huge, solid steel, teflon-coated, barbed and electrified middle finger will emerge from the White House.

Ronin

What does this lack of cooperation say to you, Loren?

GaryP

Which administration official said (I think on Meet the Press ) that Hussein may not have had WMD's but that he had the scientists who could have made them quickly?

By following this reasoning, would we have to demand of govt's whom we perceive as a probable threat to kill all their scientists?

Ronin

Bill

I don't know this, but I read on CNN.COM that this statement was attributed to one of the captured Iraqi leaders. Said leader claimed that all of the WMDs were, in fact, destroyed, but the research programs were all preserved for activation when it became safe to do so.

This scenario was later validated when the scientist who had the parts and plans for gas centrifuges buried in his rose garden for the past dozen years turned that stuff in to the Americans.

So, I believe that this situation is a fair description of what we will eventually conclude "the real truth is" about the Iraqi WMDs: they really were all destroyed by Saddam, but Saddam really did hide his ability to resume their creation and/or production at any time in the future, say whenever he felt it was safe to dig up that guy's rose garden. Your guess is as good as mine on this, but certainly a more humane response would be to require them to turn their scientists over to a country like Great Britain which would "put them on the dole" for the rest of their lives.

== Bill

Zar

That's like one of those "Gee! I could have had a V8!" things, isn't it?

Naw, its much more satisfying to drop bombs and kill people.