Iraq War When the Wrong Path Was Taken and What to Do Now

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Three, there is no indication that Iraq has attempted to import aluminum tubes for use in centrifuge enrichment. Moreover, even had Iraq pursued such a plan, it would have encountered practical difficulties in manufacturing centrifuge out of the aluminum tubes in question.

Fourth, although we are still reviewing issues related to magnets and magnet-production, there is no indication to date that Iraq imported magnets for use in centrifuge enrichment program.

As I stated above, the IAEA will naturally continue further to scrutinize and investigate all of the above issues.

After three months of intrusive inspections, we have to date found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapon program in Iraq.
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Hans Blix' report was less decisive, but still he noted increased cooperation by the Iraqis and the fact that in almost five months of extensive on the ground inspections, not a single Iraqi WMD weapons system had been found, nor had any indications been found that any such systems still existed.

This was a tremendous victory for US policy up to this point. We had peacefully ascertained that there was no Iraqi WMD threat. Blix wanted to inspect more to be sure, this is true, and UN Resolutions called for a continuing inspection regime, but in terms of what the US and the World wanted out of all of this, we had it. Inspectors were in and there were no WMD found.

History of course records and in fact current events make it hard to ignore that the Bush administration snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by electing to invade Iraq less than three weeks after these Weapons Inspector's reports. We may never know why he did. We know that Weapons of Mass Destruction were never found, much as you would guess from reading the March 7 2003 reports. It is the day of these reports and when I learned that Bush intended to go to war anyway that I switched from being mildly against the idea of going to war in Iraq, to a vigorous anti Iraq war activist attending rallies, demonstrations, protests, you name it.

But I was never angry at Democrats for voting in favor of the Iraq War Resolution nor do I hold them responsible for going to war or the war itself in any way. They did their jobs. Their actions got the weapons inspectors into Iraq and they got us to March 7th 2003. I firmly believe that neither Gore, nor Kerry nor any other contemporary Democratic leader, congressperson, etc. would have gone to war after the reports of March 7th. Unfortunately, spin from all positions of the ideological spectrum took over after we went to war.

The Conservative Right has said that the Democrats would not do what is necessary to protect the country. Well, that is what the Iraq War Resolution was for and it led to the knowledge that, yes, in terms of the threat from Iraq, we were safe. One particularly bizarre area of conservative conspiracy theory is that somehow, the Iraqis did have massive amounts of WMD but that it all was shipped to Syria.

The problems with the "Shipped to Syria" theory are several. In general, there are two possibilities, one, that Iraq had very little WMD and this small amount could be easily shipped to Syria. This is not what people like the Freepers are contending and would hardly have justified the war in any case. Option 2 is that the Iraqis had quite a lot of WMD and were able to overnight ship these WMD to Syria once the US invaded. This strains credibility for a number of reasons. Let's first examine what WMD the CIA posited that the Iraqis had, from https://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd/Iraq_Oct_2002.htm

- Iraq probably has concealed precursors, production equipment, documentation, and other items necessary for continuing its CW effort. Baghdad never supplied adequate evidence to support its claims that it destroyed all of its CW agents and munitions. Thousands of tons of chemical precursors and tens of thousands of unfilled munitions, including Scud-variant missile warheads, remain unaccounted for.

- UNSCOM discovered a document at Iraqi Air Force headquarters in July 1998 showing that Iraq overstated by at least 6,000 the number of chemical bombs it told the UN it had used during the Iran-Iraq War-bombs that remain are unaccounted for.

- Iraq has not accounted for 15,000 artillery rockets that in the past were its preferred means for delivering nerve agents, nor has it accounted for about 550 artillery shells filled with mustard agent.

- Iraq probably has stocked at least 100 metric tons (MT) and possibly as much as 500 MT of CW agents.

- Of the 15 million kg of chlorine imported under the UN Oil-for-Food Program since 1997, Baghdad used only 10 million kg and has 5 million kg in stock, suggesting that some domestically produced chlorine has been diverted to such proscribed activities as CW agent production.
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First of all, WMD in these quantities would have easily been discovered by the UN Weapons Inspection Team. Second, moving this quantity of materials around to avoid the inspectors or overnight to Syria in the middle of invasion is just impossible to believe. Thousands of bombs weighing one quarter of a ton to a ton each, hundreds or thousands of metric tons of materials not including the supposed millions of kilograms of chlorine. The Freepers and other Conservative groups have weaved a completely impossible to believe fairy tale to attempt to make true the allegations of Iraqi WMD, justify the war and prevent their President from receiving recriminations from it.

The Progressive Left believes that those Democrats who voted for the Iraq War Resolution are responsible for the Iraq war. I disagree, and I will repeat, they did their jobs. Their actions got the weapons inspectors into Iraq and they got us to March 7th 2003. I firmly believe that neither Gore, nor Kerry nor would any other contemporary Democratic leader, congressperson, etc. have gone to war after the reports of March 7th.

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An OEN Editor, Steven Leser specializes in Politics, Science & Health, and Entertainment topics. He has held positions within the Democratic Party including District Chair and Public Relations Chair within county organizations. Steven Leser (more...)

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