Okay, so the justification for the war on Iraq was the weapons of mass destruction Saddam Hussein had ready to use against the U.S.. The U.S. knew where the weapons were and a war would find them. Well, the war came and no weapons were found. So the story changed. The U.S. attacked Iraq because Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction, which he would then surely use against the U.S. The U.S. knew where the weapons were being developed and they would be uncovered any day now. But five months of inspectors combing Iraq have found nothing.
So now a new story. The U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control tells us that whether Hussein had the weapons “isn’t really the issue.” But the war is still justified because Saddam had scientists who might someday work on a weapons program that might someday build a weapon that might someday be used against the U.S. or one of its allies
Bolton said that Saddam kept “a coterie” of scientists he was preserving for the day when he could build nuclear weapons unhindered by international constraints.
I’m personally just waiting for the next level of Bush Administration retreat. Wait for Bolton to announce next month that it didn’t matter if Saddam didn’t actually have any trained nuclear scientists, as occupation inspectors had uncovered evidence that North Badgdad High taught calculus for its eleventh graders. “They might go on to work on a weapons program someday, we had to invade before Saddam could teach them Calc II.”
The excuses just get more pathetic as the truth becomes harder to ignore: the Bush Administration lied to the American people. The only winners in this war are the energy companies rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure with U.S. taxpayer dollars. It’s time to connect the dots, to stop paying investigators to comb Iraq for the non-existant weapons. The inspectors should be recalled to Washington to investigate the very real bamboozle (dare I say “conspiracy”?) that foisted a war on the American people. We’ve been played for chumps.