The release of the Saddam documents has made me think (alas, again) about the WMD issue, which we could call the “Great Gotcha” of the Iraq War. It’s all about politics and little about itself, about reality. In other words, leaving aside partisan gain, ask yourself to what extent would Saddam eventually have had significant WMDs and should we have been worried about that? The documents are showing us many things related to this issue so far, but two appear to be particularly important: 1. Saddam’s willingness to work with and encourage terror organizations when he felt like it. (See Stephen Hayes’ Camp Saddam) 2. His continued interest in WMDs via Russian and Turkish scientists, who were – if the documents are to be believed and let’s assume for the moment they are – working in Iraq right under the noses of the UN inspectors.
Now with all due respect to the Turks, I’m not especially sure of their level of scientific competence, but the Russians? The second country to have the atom and hydrogen bombs, a country we now know was willing to share at least some secrets with the Saddam regime? If we think through this with any honesty, that is a far scarier revelation in the long term than the discovery of a few suitcases of anthrax. There is an argument to be made that left to their own devices the Russians would have eventually turned Saddam into a full-blown nuclear powerwith Uday and Qusay as heir apparents. It’s Dr. Strangelove times four, Slim Pickens. Think about that one when you wonder whether the war was a good idea.
It will be interesting to see if our mainstream media, when it starts to digest this material, reacts with any thoughtfulness.
The “Russian scientists to Iran (and more)” story has been around since 1989. Not just nuclear, but the most advanced biological warfare scientists.
The threat from Russian brain drain has moved from theory to practice.
In the previous post you mentioned Felix Dzerzhinsky in passing. He was as you know the head of Cheka under Lenin and when they toppled his stature in front of the Lybayanka Prison it was thought to be the end of a murderous era. Now we have Putin as President, still a General in the KGB and they want to resurrect “Iron Felix” and put his statue back. That is the best indication of what the mind set of the present regime could ever be.
Just why should it be any surprise that Putin and gang would be working with murderers and thugs in Iraq, it just natural, thats what thugs and murderers do.
Yes, of course. Among other things, Iraq is North Korea averted. Pre-emption works.
Roger:
If we had not invaded people would still believe Saddam had the weapons and in all likelihood it was only a matter of time when his regime would have been back at it. We could not babysit them forever.
Roger concludes by asking: “It will be interesting to see if our mainstream media, when it starts to digest this material, reacts with any thoughtfulness.”
I’ll say ‘no’. Not enough to matter, at any rate. They are too committed to BDS to notice their falsification. Or to put it another way, why would they change course when they’re convinced they’ve got a good thing going?
it is still hard to imagine that the vast majority of people think that the Russians have changed. they have simply had a major setback-what with the collapse of their far flung empire obtained through conquest. the only thing that has changed is the battle space. communism and its attendant “rule of the elite” is a permanent curse on humanity that has plagued us from the time of kings before the mercantile age. Putin and his KGB cohorts are simply attempting to use proxies to provoke us and bring us down. it has become a war of perceptions. for the world to embrace Marxism, with Moscow as the symbolic head, capitalism has to be made to look like a monster. forcing us to defend our freedoms through military means serves this purpose. everyday, at the cost of life and limb, the war on terror serves their agenda. the Russians will continue to support any group that engages us in a adversarial way–and i mean any group. they will arm, with any and all weapons, any nation that is willing to confront the US and its allies. Iraq first and now Iran.
“It will be interesting to see if our mainstream media, when it starts to digest this material, reacts with any thoughtfulness.”
Don’t count on it.
Some reasons why here: http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2006/03/in-denial-bill-is-in-mail-updated.html
IRAQ – God Lied, People Died?
Roger and to all,
See my comment I posted in the thread below re Russian involvment with the Saddam Regime:
Old statues never die
*****
IRAQ – God Lied, People Died?
Roger,
Now with Saddam’s docs being released and revelations in Iraqi Gen Sada’s new book, Saddam’s Secrets, about the inner workings of the Saddam Regime, there is little doubt what was going on. You’re right on the money with the UN Oil for Food multi billion dollar con game.
Any good economic crimes investigator knows to, follow the money. In order of money received the French were first followed by the Russians and then the Chinese. Go Figure all permenant members of the UN Security Council! Does anyone see a stacked deck!
RBT has long maintained Saddam’s WMD went to Syria with Russian help. See below why this is the worst kept secret in the Blogos. You’d think the LL and the MSM would be all over this like stink on poop but of course this would negate their favorite meme, “Bush Lied. People Died.”
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Read it All
You’re right on this, Roger. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the military mafia-already connected historically to Iraq-held a fire sale of whatever portable they had in their arsenal to willing buyers in Al Qa’eda and interested parties in Iraq and elsewhere. This information was already well known from document retrieval and interviews in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, but partisan balcony journalists had other stories to report, and later those same reporters in Iraq found more important meta-narratives, like Abu Ghraib. We know, that is the government knows, but until it’s reported, I guess the facts don’t really exist.
By the way, Sayeed Rahmatullah Hashemi, the Yale student, has an interesting backstory yet to be revealed. I’m still waiting for the MSM to report on who he is and what his affiliations really were–especially his family connections to the Soviet-Najibullah regime and how he then morphed into a spokesman for the Taliban. It’s an intriguing tale; plus, he’s a bit of a roguish operator and quite well-liked among anti-Taliban Afghan expats…for some interesting reason. And there lies the twist of the yarn…
“It will be interesting to see if our mainstream media, when it starts to digest this material, reacts with any thoughtfulness.”
They won’t allow Bush to be vindicated. Google “Primakov” and “Sarandar” re the Russians helping Saddam ditch his WMD stocks and move his re-start material into Syria. The leads have been out there for years now, and no one from the MSM will touch it.
I agree. It’s clear Saddam was a threat by his very nature and, as you put it, throw in his two sons … we had to be sure they were taken out of the picture. It turns out that the Arab nuclear program was moved to Libya; but so what? Our bold action still gets the job done.