SwiftVets.com

[Denis]

A memory jog:

A few months back, a preliminary report by the 911 Commission was big news, as it said the Commission had found no contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda. In the customary standard of accuracte reporting we’ve come to know, highlighted by Rathergate, the media leapt on that, and headline after headline proclaimed this as a definitive pronouncement. While the furor was in full roar, even the Chairman and Co-chairman, Republican and Democrat respectively, went on the 'Sunday Talk Shows' and said ‘No, there were contacts’.

However, even so, the media basically ignored the chairmen and ran with the staff report. Then a few weeks later, the actual final 911 Commission Report comes out, and details contacts between Al Qaeda and Iraq, including communications between the two about estabishing Al Qaeda operations in Iraq. That gets barely reported, and few actually read the report, so that, as of now, probably nine out of ten Americans think it has been established that there we no connections. When Cheney speaks of the contacts reported by the Commission, the media laughs that Cheney is just out of touch. Kerry reinforces that no-contact wrong idea repeatedly.

Something very much the same is now happening with the Duelfer Report on Iraqi WMDs. Headlines are screaming that no stockpiles of WMDs were found, and none existed. This is, of course, being presented as a kind of pro-Kerry pronouncement, because when Kerry voted for the war and insisted we have to do something about Iraq’s WMDs, he was nuancing or something, because....well, you know. He's Kerry.

What is being all but missed, except by a few astute observers who actually take the time to read the Duelfer Report, is what it does say, and when that is coupled with the Kerry position, it becomes more clear than ever that this man is unfit to be Commander in Chief.

The years of sanctions and early years of weapon’s inspections most certainly tooks its toll on the Iraqis’ WMDs. In the debate last night, Kerry insisted that Bush made a grievous mistake because we now know the sanctions worked! The nuclear program was left to decay, almost totally. At the time of the invasion, Iraq’s nuclear program was actually behind where it was before the First Gulf War. Again, seeming good news for Kerry, as he makes much of that. However, the report also concluded, including from discussions with Saddan himself, who verified this, Iraq had maintained the core ability to rapidly get both chemical and biological weapons programs going very fast, and at far less cost than a nuclear program. According to the report, Iraq could have been producing mustard gas in quantity in about three months, and biological weapons and nerve agents, in very lethal quantity, within one to two years. Both bio and chemical weapons are easier, faster, less costly and easier to hide, than nuclear weapons, and far easier to deliver on a target.

Saddam himself said he determined to do just that, and was only waiting to make that push forward when the sanctions ended. Think about that! I won’t get into the bribes paid by Iraq from the Oil for Food Program that went to French, Russian and UN interests, to try to get those sanctions removed, or the French promise to block US military action in the UN Security Council.

It has been Kerry’s insistence that we should have given the UN inspectors more time, sufficient time to determine whether Iraq had such weapons or not. Let’s then assume that Kerry was Commander in Chief, and had his way, and we did as he said he would have done. At some point, probably several months, those inspectors would have found what we have now found: no weapons stockpiles. Of course, unlike Duelfer and company, the inspectors would not have had the unfettered access to Iraqi documents and personnel, including Saddam himself. As this was progressing, France, Germany and Russia would have been working hard to have the sanctions removed, as they were already working to have them eased. If after six or eight months, Hans Blix reported no WMDs, the sanctions would have been removed.

Let us say that instead of the invasion beginning as it did in March 2002, Kerry as Commander in Chief gave them another eight months, after which the inspectors reported no WMDs. With France leading the way, the sanctions would have beenremoved shortly, say by Jan 2003.

With the sanctions removed, what Saddam himself says he was waiting for, plus lucrative oil contracts with France, Germany and Russia giving him cash in hand, Saddam would have kicked his desired weapons programs into gear.

Giving him almost two years, from January 2003 to October 2004, Iraq would have developed both chemical and biological weapons. The chemical mustard gas could have been made in quantity for over a year and a half.

Keep in mind that this would all be post 911. On that day, Al Qaeda demonstrated the willingness to kill thousands of Americans outright, even if that required multiple suicides. Afghanistan was closed to them, post fall of the Taliban, but with Hussein still in power, would Iraq have been? That was McCain’s point, and the 911 Commission confirmed that such was a valid concern.

From page 61 of the 911 Commission Report:

[kate]

[Denis]

[Tom Poole]

I guess the OIM missed this one too, until the proper spin could be developed.