Why I Wish There Were WMD in Iraq

I have opposed the war in Iraq since it was being floated around as an idea. I knew it was bad business for America and her troops. And of course, when the claims of WMD came up, I pretty much knew it was absolute BS. But I really hoped I was wrong.

When our forces first started rolling into Iraq, I was honestly hoping that Saddam would fire off chemical or biological weapons. Why? I sure as hell did not want our soldiers to die horrible deaths, or anyone for that matter. But by doing so, Saddam would have proved us right and vindicated us in our invasion. The UN and all who opposed the action would be forced to eat their own words. It would have given us unrefutable proof that we were indeed right to invade, and that his arsenal was indeed a threat to the world.

Well, nothing happened. A mixed blessing. On one hand, our troops did not have horrible, unthinkable deaths inflicted on them. However, once we were in, the burden of proof was still heavily upon us. The world glared down, waiting for every single mistake we would make so they could rub it in our faces.

Years have gone by. Other than some old, outdated, decayed remains of what might have been chemical weapons, and a few pieces of equipment that several years down the road might have started a nuclear enrichment program, we found nothing.

After being there three years, we still have found nothing. Except, death, hatred, violence, shame, and hopelessness.

But it does not seem to matter anymore. No one cares. The only people who are really gonna suffer in the end from this are the coalition troops, the Iraqis, and their families.

If they could provide proof that there were WMD and Saddam was indeed crazy enough to use them, I would be ever so happy to be proven wrong. I would dance with joy. We would be aquitted of all charges, and all the people who have died, it wouldnt have been for absolutely nothing.

Sadly, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

I had similar thoughts Skadi when our PM decided to grab hold of GWB's coat tails and send our troops over there as well. Still no wmd's, still no end to the violence, and still no end in sight.
The only light at the end of the tunnel may very well be closely followed by a mushroom cloud!!

Well, you have to look at it from a different perspective. I don't believe Saddam was an idiot. He was a VERY smart man. He knew he would have been doomed, had he used weapons he wasn't supposed to have. Even if he had these weapons (which is still a good possibility), he would not have been stupid enough to use them. He knew the Americans would look bad if they didn't find any of these weapons. Hell, I believe that there is a very good possibility that he moved the weapons as soon as GWB announced he would come after him if he didn't comply. Only a moron would keep them in the same place to be found by the invading Americans. Just like some Hezbollah fighters tried to gain sympathy in the media by doctoring photos or conducting interviews with Westerners, Saddam probably knew that even if he lost the battle, he'd win the media war. Not having found the evidence that the U.S. was looking for doesn't mean it never existed. It just means that Saddam wasn't dumb enough to keep them where they would be found. Iraq is a big place. They can still turn up burried somewhere under the sand, or even inside another country. Of course by the time that happens, it might not matter so much anymore. Whatever the case,....If the Americans are guilty of anything, they're guilty of underestimating Saddam. Just my opinion.

He's doomed anyway without using the weapons, he'll soon be found guilty and sentenced to death no doubt, if he'd had them he'd have used them.
Making America look bad because he hid them and him dead or locked away for life, sorry i dont think he operates that way.

Originally posted by mojo4sale
I had similar thoughts Skadi when our PM decided to grab hold of GWB's coat tails and send our troops over there as well. Still no wmd's, still no end to the violence, and still no end in sight.
The only light at the end of the tunnel may very well be closely followed by a mushroom cloud!!

There is another factor. GWB didn't go at it alone, he also dragged others in with him. yet more guilt, more blood will be heaped at our feet. It isn't just American troops getting killed, maimed, or involved in bad things there.

Honestly, if Saddam had the supposed arsenal of WMDs, 2manyquestions, we would have found them by now, or some evidence.

You seem to forget, 80% of his own people, the Shia and the Kurds, hated his guts and since they occupy most of the country, would have eagerly pointed the coalition troops in the right direction. But no one has come forth to say where they are at, or what happened to them, or even that they existed at all.

Especially when you considered we spent 12 years bombing the crap out of Iraq and breaking down their infrastructure into nothing.

Wonder if there's been anymore info from that Dave Graubatz guy, that thread seems to have died a slow death here, has there been anymore info from within the US regarding his accusations ?

Skadi, why would you want to see Bush's war vindicated? Especially at the cost of many soldiers' deaths?

I can see that Bush's folly reflects badly on our whole nation. But the truth is, sometimes that kind of humiliation can provide a useful lesson. We have been pursuing an imperialist foreign policy on a grand scale since the end of World War II. This is incompatible with democracy -- you cannot have a democratic empire -- and will destroy the country we love if we don't reverse course. Yet most Americans don't see that, and need to have their faces rubbed in the truth before they will.

If weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, the emperor might still seem to be wearing clothes, rather than being exposed in his nakedness. This is a necessary lesson for our people.

The weird thing is when you look into the history of the US, Saddam, and WMDs it actually seems like he used them in the first Gulf War - but the US kept quiet about it!

If you google video "Beyond Treason", you'll find an excellent documentary about the US and chemical weapons.

There is interview footage with several GW1 vets who say, quite categorically, that there were biochemical alarms in their quarters, and that they went off quite regularly but that they were told by their superiors to ignore them and not put on their biochem hazard suits. These suits were, in any case, of poor manufacture, and not only did the charcoal filters fail to stop the entry of depleted uranium microparticles (which interviewees said they could taste and smell in the air), these filters would only last about three days and no spares were supplied.

It emerges that Saddam had, at (I think I'm spelling this right) Khaminiyah, a truly massive chemical dump comprising several dozen warehouses each "as big as a super-Wal-Mart". These contained biological and chemical weapons supplied by many, many countries (there's video footage to demonstrate this) including the US, UK and Russia. For a variety of reasons, of which the most important may well have been to conceal the evidence of the West's complicity in supplying Saddam, Powell and Schwartzkopf decided to simply blow up the entire dump while their own troops were downwind. Dumb.

Anyway, Iraq is now liberally sprinkled with DU dust and the video has some truly disturbing images of abnormal births. The deformities are quite appalling and there are cases of foetuses being born without limbs and heads, with cyclopean eyes, with their brains open because their skulls are not fully formed... it made me very very angry, I have to say.

Originally posted by Two Steps Forward
Skadi, why would you want to see Bush's war vindicated? Especially at the cost of many soldiers' deaths?

Because those soldiers would have actually died for the reason they signed up: defending America. If the war was vindicated, that would mean Bush was right. That this whole war so many people fell for was actually justifed. That we have done something right in the world.

You seem to forget, 80% of his own people, the Shia and the Kurds, hated his guts and since they occupy most of the country, would have eagerly pointed the coalition troops in the right direction. But no one has come forth to say where they are at, or what happened to them, or even that they existed at all.

We found huge underground facilities in Iraq, emense underground complexes and we found those by chance. You would think that such elaborate structures would have been known by thousands of Iraqis, but none of them came forward and showed us they were there. I would imagine that WMD stockpiles would only be known by a select few of the elite. If I had to put money on it, they went to Syria right before the invasion. Anybody check out the Syrian desert? I don't think that's gonna happen.

One of Saddam's small bunkers

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
Because those soldiers would have actually died for the reason they signed up: defending America. If the war was vindicated, that would mean Bush was right. That this whole war so many people fell for was actually justifed. That we have done something right in the world.

But I don't believe we would have done something right in the world by invading Iraq even if he did have a few chemical warheads stashed away. It would still have been an invasion merely because another country could attack us, rather than because they actually did. That was wrong when Hitler did it, and it is equally wrong when Bush does.

Some of the victims of Hitler's aggression weren't exactly innocent angels, either -- start with Stalin -- so the fact that Saddam Hussein was also no angel is equally no justification.

So no, it wouldn't mean we had done something right in the world. It would just mean that more Americans would THINK we had, and so we would be more likely to go on doing it. I like it better this way.

Originally posted by Two Steps Forward

But I don't believe we would have done something right in the world by invading Iraq even if he did have a few chemical warheads stashed away. It would still have been an invasion merely because another country could attack us, rather than because they actually did. That was wrong when Hitler did it, and it is equally wrong when Bush does.

Bush claimed that there was a doomsday arsenal of WMDs. Not just a little handful. Thats what I was hoping for. And I disagree. Had Saddam indeed had a huge crop of war-ready WMDs and was indeed ready to attack us and threaten us with them, then the stupid thing would not be to wait until he attacked, but to be proactive before the fact and eliminate the threat. Thats what I am talking about.

And not all invasions or wars are bad. I believe there are times when it is necessary. What I wished was that there was a legitimate, urgent reason behind our invasion. That there was a real threat. That we were actually doing something that was well within our rights: to elimiate a clear, present, and imminent threat.

Bush did not say they could attack, us, but that they WOULD attack us, and had buttloads of chemical and nuclear nasties to do it with. I wish it was true.

At the end of the day, however, it was a big fat lie to pillage Iraq's oil and set up fat contracts for his rich friends to pillage more from Iraq, and at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. In otherwords, there was no legit purpose for the invasions. There was no threat to us and our well being. But this war has created one.

We already suffered the sick debacle that was Vietnam. I wished we werent repeating it.

I'm with Skadi on this one. No sane person would want there to be WMD's in Iraq but HAD they been found, and in the quantities alluded to by Bush & Co. before the invasion, the U.S. would be on a far better international footing than it finds itself today. Our credibility has been seriously eroded. Every two-bit terrorist cell can raise the 'USA = Imperialist' flag with impunity. We're trying to get some sanctions imposed on Iran and no one seems to be willing to back us on this. The whole Iraq War redux is being written-off by the world as a cheap oil grab and we have little to defend our actions other than, 'well, Saddam was a very bad man.'. Had the WMD's been found the international community would be far more willing to back the continued work in Iraq and would be more likely to support similar actions in the future. This escapade has cost us on many fronts and will continue to cost us dearly well into the future.

Originally posted by jtma508
I'm with Skadi on this one. No sane person would want there to be WMD's in Iraq but HAD they been found, and in the quantities alluded to by Bush & Co. before the invasion, the U.S. would be on a far better international footing than it finds itself today. Our credibility has been seriously eroded. Every two-bit terrorist cell can raise the 'USA = Imperialist' flag with impunity. We're trying to get some sanctions imposed on Iran and no one seems to be willing to back us on this. The whole Iraq War redux is being written-off by the world as a cheap oil grab and we have little to defend our actions other than, 'well, Saddam was a very bad man.'. Had the WMD's been found the international community would be far more willing to back the continued work in Iraq and would be more likely to support similar actions in the future. This escapade has cost us on many fronts and will continue to cost us dearly well into the future.

Exactly, jtma.

This is not about a little humilation. Our international standing, reputation, credibility have been severely damaged. Our economy is on a slow downhill slide, valuable resources that should have been used fixing alot of problem in America have been diverted to this mess, Americans and coalition allies are dying, our security is being comprimised by our forces being overstretched, and uncertainty is is spreading.

The cost of this war is extremely heavy, and it has done nothing to benefit anyone except a few contractors, oil companies, and other elites. The cost is high, and we have purhcased nothing except failure and danger.

Im not an American but I agree with many of the sentiments expressed on this thread. I to wish that large stock piles of WMDS and evidence of Iraqs Nuclear program had been found but it not going to happen. If large stockpiles of WMDs had remained hidden after the invasion the insurgents would have used them against coalition troops by now.

Note more WMDs that pre date the Gulf War may be found but there hardly the smoking gun that Powell preached to the UN.

The worst thing is that no one will be held accountable for the current mess in
iraq accountablity is at an all time low in US politics.

[edit on 2-9-2006 by xpert11]