WMD talks... over

[Sazar]

so 1000 men out of about 300 000... maybe in a year... ya sounds real urgent to me...

the US has a stated 5 yr plan in Iraq...

there was a larger team of weapons inspectors deployed in iraq... a number of them subsequently recalled...

thus far there have been no stated confessions of anything related to caches of WMD's in Iraq...

considering the numbers of Iraqi's in captivity in Iraq as well as the number of high ranking officials already captured and the urgency of the matter... it would be ludicrous to suppose that the administration is not doing everything in its power to unearth the wmd's that are supposed to be present...

vince.. some of your points are very valid.. however the UN inspectors did not get nearly the unfetered access that our lads are getting...

the UN inspectors did not have nearly the same resources @ their disposal or the sites to search... recall that ALL the sites that were earmarked for checking by the administration have yielded practically nothing by way of solid evidence...

our stated reason for going into a soverign nation... toppling its internationally recognized government has always been WMD's and their clear/immidiate and imminent threat to the US peoples...

if in 2 months time we have yet to find 1 barrel does this not at least somewhat weaken the perceived threat that Iraq posed to the 'world' and the US ?

in a related story... the first shipments of oil are on schedule from Iraq

apparently in Turkey @ this time

 

[RussSchultz]

the long term one would have been better handled had the world confronted saddam in a united front

I agree

which very likely couldve been had after about another 6 months of inspections.

I disagree. The sanctions/inspections were in trouble. A sizeable population of the world was calling for the end of sanctions because it (in truth) did more damage to the people than to Saddam. Some governments also supported this--including at least one or two of the veto holders on the security council. We saw exactly how united of a front we had in the 6 months leading up to the start of conflict.

Also, the only time inspections made any progress at all was the immediate threat of military conflict. That can only go on for so long before you have to step up to the plate or the threat is useless. Even then, we never ever would have had compliance from the Iraqi government--it would have been obsfuscation after obsfuscation just like the last 12 years. Making as much progress as we have to dismantle and verify the dismantling of the banned programs would never have happened in the 6 months starting from April under the current inspection regime, or 6 years.

 

[nelg]

Well, Iraq isn't the only nation in the region with a KNOWN nuclear weapons programme without international oversight. That other nation is Israel; the only nation in the region to have repeatedly annexed (and settled) territory from everyone of it's neighbors (5/5) at one time or another whereas Iraq went after (2/6).

I take the Dick Rumsfield version of history.....

Israel was being threatened by one of its neighbors. Israel warned its other neighbors no to get involved. War ensued. The other neighbors got involved. Israel won. The neighbor's lost some real estate.

 

[Natoma]

As I posted in the other thread on this:

I'll wait until this is official and vetted. I remember a few weeks ago people said that the mobile units were found, and when they actually went through them it turns out they were so rusted and old that there was no way they could be used for chem/bio weapons.

I also remember when drums were found at the start of the war, it was reported that the chem/bio weapons had been found. Only to find out later that they were just barrels.

I wish the military would wait until they're 100% sure before releasing information to the media. We've been down this road before, and if this turns out to be another hoax or false start, then yet again we will look stupid.

 

[Willmeister]

Israel was being threatened by one of its neighbors. Israel warned its other neighbors no to get involved. War ensued.

I think you should read what Moshe Dayan, who was the Israeli minister of defense (or was he the northern commander? Can't remember for sure...) during the '67 war and how the Israelis dragged Syria into the conflict just so it could take the Golan...

Nasser and Assad were even threatening conflict since 1971. Syria has continually demanded the return of the Golan and Israel has no right to keep it, especially after what Dayan said occurred (continual Israeli provocation of Syria from the early 1960s on). The 1973 was a surprise all right. The Israelis were the only ones who didn't see it coming. Kissenger did and Israel didn't listen...

 

[Silent_One]

And as I posted in the other thread on this:

Saw this reported on CNN the other night. CNN said they had this information for a week before the Military would allow them to release the information to be sure what they were reporting.

Additionally the Iraqi scientist who came forward with this information said two interesting things:
-1.) That as he recieved this "gas centrifuge kit", as he called them, to bury it, there were a total of three kits on a table. The other two kits he siad he did not know where they are hidden.
-2.) He said other scientists are waiting to see how he is treated before coming forward. Some believed he would be tried as a war criminal. Others worry about their families being killed as retribution. Most are waiting to see what happens to him.