Let's get real - What happened to the WMD's?

[TheFarseer]

I'm sure this has been discussed but not for a while and I foget what we decided. I don't even know if he was still verified to have had them in '97 or whenever inspections were stopped. So were they (1)destroyed before inspections stopped? (2)destroyed after inspections stopped? (3)Moved to Syria or somewhere else? (4)Still buried in Iraq somewhere?(5) something else I am missing I would have to guess 1 or 2 but much like the CIA, I don't know.

[Wickerman]

1. 1 eom

[Beetwasher]

2. How About They Were Destroyed By Scott Ritter and The UN

inspections teams in the '90's and after the first gulf war?

[Warpy]

16. Most were used against Iran

After the end of that war in 1988, neither side had a whole lot left over. Huseein did still have some of the infrastructure used to assemble that stuff from materials supplied by the US and Europe, though. Ritter and the UN destroyed all remaining stockpiles. Clinton bombed the little remaining infrastructure. Sanctions made sure he couldn't import sufficient quantites of anything to restart a program, even had he been able to rebuild his infrastructure.

He had nothing, we knew he had nothing. The OSP cobbled together a pack of lies, complete with fantasy figures, from wishful thinking and a lot of horsepoop from Chalabi, Allawi, and the Israelis, that would convince Middle America that Hussein was the bogeyman with the bomb and that the local Safeway was his first target.

This bunch did nothing short of committing TREASON. I will not believe in this country again until they are tried, convicted, and thrown into prison for the rest of their foul lives.

[mac56]

3. #1

Destroyed LONG before the inspections stopped.

[Barney Rocks]

4. I have them

in my basement. (Shhh)

[DrWeird]

5. #1

Inspections were going on right until the war started.

In fact, Iraqi officials showed UN officials where they were destroyed, and the UN said, "yup, that pretty much accounts for all of it."

[htuttle]

6. The ones that were still left from the Iran/Iraq war

...went bad (spoiled) long ago. They were probably burned as trash. It is known a a lot of it was destroyed, but not properly accounted for (eyewitnesses say they were destroyed, but there aren't any records of disposal as the UN required).

There was NO verification he had any chem weapons in '97. At least I never heard anything credible about that.

I do know that:
A) They were not moved to Syria. Syria and Iraq haven't gotten along very well since the old United Arab Republic broke up (it was Yoko's fault, I hear). The two Ba'ath parties went separate ways, and relations chilled between them.

B) They are not still buried in Iraq. What would be the point of that? They'd be nothing but a liability, and they'd still go bad before he could dig them up.

[usurper4]

7. They didn't do anything since the original Gulf War

This caused a lot of problems with the UN inspection teams and it ended up getting spun to us all.

When inspection teams couldn't find anything since the first war, repeatedly the UN has grown frustrated and pulled the teams out.

Within a few months, articles would be posted talking about how Hussein "forced" the monitors to leave.

These kind of distortions were a bulk of the items Tony Blair used to justify invading Iraq.

[TheFarseer]

8. Thanks everybody

I had thought for a long time, why would we have inspections all through out '91-'97 and let them keep the stuff we found?!?!?! and how could we be there for 6 years and not find all the important stuff?!?! The only thing the found during the new inspections leading up to the war were the Al Sammud II missles which were a fricking joke, oh and the toy remote controlled airplane.

[banana republican]

9. My Dog Ate them???? n/t

[Goldmund]

10. This should have been a poll question

[TahitiNut]

11. The Busholini Regime would have not invaded if #1 weren't the truth.

They knew it and counted on it. Over ten years of inspections and sanctions were just phase two of the conquest of Iraq. There was never any question about the invasion.

[sidwill]

18. The problem in this discussion is......

That the WMD issue as put forth by the US media and the White House is framed as a "zero sum issue". In other words the simple existence of even a small outdated stockpile of chem weapons would in the neo-cons and the medias mind justify this illegal war.

The fact that nobody, even the Kerry camp seems to have never brought up is NOT wether Iraq had WMDs but rather DID IRAQ HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO USE SUCH WMDS IN AN OFFENSIVE CAPACITY AGAINST THE US?

This is the way the issue should have been put forth by the Democrats, progressive pundits and the media, And the answer to this question...even before the war was NO.

Instead we once again ceded the framing of the debate to the wingnuts who made it all about wether or not Hussein had these systems at some time or another.

We will continue to lose the American public as long as we allow the right to choose just how the issues will be debated in the media.

[TahitiNut]

19. I agree fully. The examples of diverting discussion from the issues ...

... to irrelevancies are abundant with this regime. I see the media as totally complicit in this.

Iraq posed absolutely no substantive nor imminent threat to the US whatsoever. The preemptive invasion was wrong (and illegal) on many levels.

[radwriter0555]

12. What WMDs? At this point there are more WMDs than terrorists in

iraq. Go figure.

[TrogL]

13. the entire WMD program consisted of papers buried under a tree

in some guy's back yard

[Disturbed]

15. Oil.

Saddam was preparing to sell oil via the Euro. It sealed his doom.

[HFishbine]

14. "destroyed after inspections stopped?"

Which time? They were stopped in 1998, restarted in January, 2003 and stopped again in March, 2003.

[LibertyorDeath]

17. Repoed by the CIA for to many missed payments