← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · madrussian
Thread ID: 12215 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2004-02-08
2004-02-08 16:38 | User Profile
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Sunday offered a shifting rationale for the Iraq war -- that Saddam Hussein had the capacity to develop unconventional arms if not the actual weapons -- and said he did not believe the more than 500 Americans killed in the war died in vain.
Bush subjected himself to an hour-long grilling on NBC's "Meet the Press" in an attempt to quell the criticism of the Iraq war over the absence of weapons of mass destruction and halt a slide in his job approval ratings that could threaten his re-election next November.
Bush conceded to veteran interviewer Tim Russert that it was "correct" that weapons of mass destruction had not been found in Iraq but emphasized a different reason why the war was necessary.
"He had the capacity to have a weapon, make a weapon. We thought he had weapons. The international community thought he had weapons. But he had the capacity to make a weapon and then let that weapon fall into the hands of a shadowy terrorist network," Bush said.
With more than 500 Americans killed during the war and its chaotic aftermath, Bush addressed himself to the parents who lost children. "Saddam Hussein was dangerous ... He had the ability to make weapons at the very minimum."
TOPPLE SADDAM
Bush and his team had said in the run-up to the war that it necessary to topple Saddam because he had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, was trying to build a nuclear weapon and represented a grave and gathering danger in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, world.
Last Friday Bush appointed a bipartisan commission to investigate flaws in intelligence used to justify the war based on former chief weapons hunter David Kay's fruitless search.
Bush argued strenuously that CIA Director George Tenet was doing a good job but he blamed the intelligence for his pre-war convictions that Iraq was a danger.
"I expected to find the weapons ... I based my decision on the best intelligence possible, intelligence that had been gathered over the years, intelligence that not only our analysts thought was valid but analysts from other countries thought were valid," he said.
Bush also defended his decision to put off a report by a new intelligence commission until well after the November election and said voters will have ample time to assess "whether or not I made the right decision" in invading Iraq.
He gave the commission until March 31, 2005, to report back, meaning the results will not be known until after November when voters decide whether to give him a second term. Democrats want it sooner.
"We didn't want to be hurried," Bush said. "And it's important that this investigation take its time."
Bush said he knew some would say, "'He's trying to avoid responsibility."'
"Look we're in a political season," he said.
Democrats immediately questioned the independence of the panel since its members were handpicked by Bush. Bush had initially been cool to a commission and agreed to it under pressure from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill.
2004-02-08 16:48 | User Profile
By Mike Peacock
LONDON (Reuters) - The former chief U.N. weapons inspector Sunday likened the use of intelligence by the leaders of Britain and the United States to justify war in Iraq to the tactics of insincere salesmen.
Hans Blix -- who pleaded for more time to search Iraq for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons before a U.S.-led invasion in March -- said the West had a right to expect more from their leaders.
"The intention was to dramatize it (the intelligence) just as the vendors of some merchandise are trying to exaggerate the importance of what they have," Blix told BBC television.
Nearly 10 months after the war none of the biological or chemical weapons cited by President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as the reason for a pre-emptive attack on Iraq have been found.
"From politicians, our leaders in the Western world, I think we expect more than that, a bit more sincerity," Blix said.
Last month former chief weapons inspector David Kay -- who was tasked with finding such weapons in Iraq after the war ended -- said those who asserted Iraq had weapons of mass destruction "were almost all wrong."
Blix's comments will fan the flames of a debate over whether Bush and Blair misled their peoples by arguing that war was needed to counter a growing threat to international peace from an Iraqi regime armed with weapons of mass destruction.
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March killed thousands of Iraqis, led to the deaths of hundreds of Western soldiers, toppled former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, split Western allies along pro- and anti-war fronts, damaged the prestige of the United Nations and has created a sticky problem for U.S. administrators of Iraq now seeking to introduce democracy.
Prior to the war Blair said Iraq posed a "serious and current" threat, that it had continued to produce banned weapons and that it could deploy some of them within 45 minutes.
Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has added to Blair's woes by joining the Labor prime minister's critics.
"It is quite clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction," Cook told Britain's ITV television.
Try as he might, Blair cannot shake off troubles cause by last year's invasion of Iraq.
Last week he bowed to growing pressure and set up an inquiry into possible intelligence failings on Iraqi weapons within hours of a similar U.S. commission called by Bush.
The Bush commission will investigate alleged flaws in the intelligence used to justify military action, but has not been asked to report back until well after his political fate is decided at U.S. presidential elections in November.
Senior British government minister Lord Falconer rebuffed Blix's comment and said Britain's inquiry would provide answers.
"It can look at the whole picture and see what discrepancies there may be between what is found in Iraq and what was said before, how the intelligence was gathered, how it was used," he said.
London and Washington went to war despite failing to secure a U.N. resolution authorizing military action and ignoring pleas from other Security Council members to give Blix's team in Iraq more time to search for weapons of mass destruction.
"We said that we had seen no evidence of any...weapons," Blix said. "We had, I think, issued the correct warnings. Nevertheless, they didn't take them seriously."