Photograph evidence Bush invaded Iraq for watermelon jam

[shockingelk]

As it dawned upon America that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, the White House and their media surrogates successfully framed the debate in terms of the unaccounted for weaponry Iraq had declared, "He said he had the stuff." This was not the main reason we were given during the "march to war", rather we were told that Hussein was currently manufacturing bio- and chemical weapons and currently building nuclear weapons and he must be stopped.

President Bush outlined the case against Iraq in Cincinnati on October 7, 2002, citing photographic evidence that Iraq was operating proscribed industrial complexes so large, their nefarious activities could be seen from space.

The following day, Defense Intelligence Agency analyst John Yurechko gave a presentation where he actually showed the photographs of which Bush had spoken. As an example, among the dozens of slides he showed was one titled "Nuclear Program DECEPTION". The photograph is of the "al Qaim Phosphate Plant & Uranium Extraction Line" and is dated April 1, 2002. Below the photo are the words "Currently active". Yurechko noted to the Pentagon reporters, "If you look at the picture, you'll see it's an active facility." So there you go. Photographic evidence that Iraq was refining uranium.

In the following months, the Bush administration successfully harnessed our position of global leadership and power to reach a world consensus on UNSCR 1441 and secured Saddam Hussein's cooperation with it. These accomplishments on their own are two of the very few Bush administration achievements for which we should unhesitatingly applaud them. Nobody sensible should deny that ensuring Hussein did not have access to nuclear warheads and other offensive weapons was a very good thing.

By the time we launced into Iraq, the inspection process had progressed sufficiently enough to show the alleged Iraqi threat was obviously a bunch of garbage smoked through an opium pipe. We were actually under the rooftops the facilities we were shown as proof that "no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq," as Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee on September 19, 2002. (Side-note: an "immediate threat" is more alarming than an "imminent threat" as an imminent treat only threatens to become immediate).

Here are a few examples of things the inspections revealed - or rather didn't reveal. Americans selected by the administration were among the inspectors, of course:

"The most important point to make is that access has been provided to all sites we have wanted to inspect and with one exception it has been prompt." - January 27, 2003

"There is no indication of resumed nuclear activities in those buildings that were identified through the use of satellite imagery as being reconstructed or newly erected since 1998, nor any indication of nuclear-related prohibited activities at any inspected sites." - March 7, 2003

"Falluja I is storage of farm products and largely deserted." - January 17, 2003

"The plant produces tomato products, date syrup, cheese, vinegar, and watermelon jam ... A Mosul-based multidisciplinary team inspected the Arabic Gulf Company in Mosul on 9 March. This company produces letter envelopes." - March 11, 2003

Did the inspectors conclusively, finally, and officially verify that Iraq had disarmed and was producing no weapons of mass destruction? No. Why not? Because President Bush had no resolve to follow through with the inspections his administration so fabulously made possible. Instead he "reluctantly" launched "military operations to disarm Iraq".

President Bush's explanation

On July 14, 2003 President Bush explained the errors in judgement claiming, "It's the same intelligence, by the way, that my predecessor used to make the decision he made in 1998 ... And we gave a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in." That he seemed to have forgotten he succeeded in getting the inspectors in deserves no comment. On his claim that the intelligence, although flawed, had everybody fooled for a long time - that everybody "knew" Hussein was hording terrible weapons, perhaps someone other than this author is more qualified to respond:

"I expect Saddam Hussein to let inspectors back into the country. We want to know whether he's developing weapons of mass destruction."
- President George W. Bush
January 16, 2002

[iconoclastic cat]

1. Ooo! Watermelon jam sounds dee-lish!

Have you tried pickled watermelon? Also very tasty.

Now what were you saying? Oh, yeah. Bush is an idiot, fake reasons for war, yada yada.

[shadu]

2. pickled watermelon!

are you pulling my leg?

[bobthedrummer]

3. It's an acquired taste-and not bad at all.

[shockingelk]

7. kinda like a sour chutney

My mom makes it - is vinegary and has cinnamon and allspice. No VX though.

[iconoclastic cat]

4. Nope!

On the left, in the glass pitcher:


I love that stuff.

[shockingelk]

6. does sound yummy, this is what I thjink is important here

The mantra that we were looking for things in a country as large as California was repeated endlessly.

David Kay spoke about how the stuff they were looking for could fit in a two car garage. Also got a lot of play on that.

People who are forgiving of the administrations "mistake" have been tricked into thinking we were always looking for small amounts of things, and the response has usually been along the lines of, "We would have found it by now. The reason we were given that the UN couldn't find them was because Hussein was deceiving. Hussein is now out of the picture."

That's the wrong response - it acknowledges the argument. The correct response is ]i]"That's not the reason we were given for going to war. Most of the reasons we were given were shown wrong while Hussein was still in power."

I wasn't presenting an argument to be debated on DU - I was suggesting ways of debating the way the decision was made to go to war and providing some substantiating links. This issue will likely come up in the Presidential debates - the way we went to war - and I think it's a good idea to prepare for that by remembering America what the argument for war actually was. It was two Sopranos seasons ago after all. Sorry if you didn't find anything useful other than the title. ;)

[BrotherBuzz]

12. You're correct, it's important...

and I apologize for posting another bit of fiction that appears to have more truth in it than the crap this misadminstration has been shoveling. Richard Brautigan was an important part of my life thirty/forty years ago, and after revisiting his writing recently, I his work still relevant. I take comfort in it because it balances my life even though it may be an acquired taste.

Lets work on the mantra: WMD = Watermelon Jam! ;)

[BrotherBuzz]

5. In watermelon sugar

In Watermelon Sugar

IN WATERMELON SUGAR the deeds were done and done again as my life is done in watermelon sugar. I'll tell you about it because I am here and you are distant.
Wherever you are, we must do the best we can. It is so far to travel, and we have nothing here to travel, except watermelon sugar. I hope this works out.
I live in a shack near iDEATH. I can see iDEATH out the window. It is beautiful. I can also see it with my eyes closed and touch it. Right now it is cold and turns like something in the
hand of a child. I do not know what that thing could be.
There is a delicate balance in iDEATH. It suits us.
The shack is small but pleasing and comfortable as my life and made from pine, watermelon sugar and stones as just about everything here is.
Our lives we have carefully constructed from watermelon sugar and then travelled to the length of our dreams, along roads lined with pines and stones.
I have a bed, a chair, a table and a large chest that I keep my things in. I have a lantern that burns watermelontrout oil at night.
That is something else. I'll tell you about it later. I have a gentle life.
I go to the window and look out again. The sun is shining at the long edge of a cloud. It is Tuesday and the sun is golden.
I can see piney woods and the rivers that flow from those piney woods. The rivers are cold and clear and there are trout in the rivers.
Some of the rivers are only a few inches wide.
I know a river that is half-an-inch wide. I know because I measured it and sat beside it for a whole day. It started raining in the middle of the afternoon. We call everything a river here. We're
that kind of people.
I can see fields of watermelons and the rivers that flow through them. There are many bridges in the piney woods and in the fields of watermelons. There is a bridge in front of this shack.
Some of the bridges are made of wood, old and stained silver like rain, and some of the bridges are made of stone gathered from a great distance and built in the order of that distance, and some of the bridges are made of watermelon sugar. I like those bridges best.
We make a great many things out of watermelon sugar here -- I'll tell you about it -- including this book being written near iDEATH.
All this will be gone into, travelled in watermelon sugar.

- Richard Brautigan

[iconoclastic cat]

8. This whole thread is very, very odd.

[BrotherBuzz]

9. It's a big tent...enjoy!

;)

[bobthedrummer]

10. It's an acquired taste...

:7

[shockingelk]

11. Jellyfish is odd too, but yummy

If thin enough and not overcooked.