And oh by the way: Contrary to Republican claims, the majority of Democrats in Congress voted against the above-mentioned Senate resolution to give Bush the CONDITIONAL approval to go to war with Iraq.
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As to why the U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq, Bush claims that Saddam, would not let them back in again. Here are Bush's exact words, taken from a recording of a Bush speech that was played on the radio by Thom Hartmann:
“The larger point is, and the fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. We gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in.” (A bald faced lie.) “And therefore, after a reasonable request,” Bush continues, “we decided to remove him from power so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States.”
In March of 2003 the United States prepared for the invasion of Iraq and amassed troops and tanks at its border even though U.N. weapons inspectors were already in Iraq, had been their since the autumn of the previous year (2002), and were having absolutely free and unfettered access to every building in Iraq, roaming around everywhere. As UN Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix said, “there were no impediments.” Blix and his team were not followed by anyone and were free to conduct surprise inspections of any facility or building they wanted, without having to tell anyone anything about their plans for the day. And when some of Saddam's inspectors, working on their own, happened upon stored missiles that were 3 feet longer than UN requirements allowed, those missiles were immediately destroyed by Saddam's men.
Then Bush let the UN and its inspectors know that the bombing and invasion of Iraq was imminent so that the inspectors would be forced to leave the country, and they left.
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As to when the inspectors were ordered out of Iraq: The Washington Post reported that "Butler ordered his inspectors to evacuate Baghdad, in anticipation of a military attack, on Tuesday night."
But in the 14 months since then, the Washington Post has again and again tried to rewrite history -- claiming that Saddam Hussein expelled the U.N. inspectors from Iraq. Despite repeated attempts by its readers to set the record straight in letters to the editor, the Post has persisted in reporting this Orwellian fiction.
Not only did Saddam Hussein not order the inspectors' retreat, but Butler's decision to withdraw them was -- to say the least -- highly controversial. The Washington Post (12/17/98) reported that as Butler was drafting his report on Iraqi cooperation, U.S. officials were secretly consulting with him about how to frame his conclusions.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1750
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So, besides the oil, why was Bush so inclined to order the invasion of Iraq? Here’s a clue: Then-Governor Bush, in 1999, told his biographer, Mickey Herskowitz, "One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as commander in chief. My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade, if I have that much capital, I'm not going to waste it; I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed. And I'm going to have a successful presidency."
Essentially, Bush said that he would invade a country like Iraq, to get political capital, to get Republicans elected, to get his legislative agenda passed. And he simply did what he said he would, once given the golden opportunity that 9/11 provided.
According to Herskowitz, who has authored more than 30 books, many of them jointly written autobiographies of famous Americans in politics, sports and media (including that of Reagan adviser Michael Deaver), Bush and his advisers were sold on the idea that it was “difficult for a president to accomplish an electoral agenda without the record-high presidential approval numbers that always accompany successful if modest wars.”
http://www.russbaker.com/Guerrilla%20News%20Network%20-%20Bush.htm
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