Why Iraq?
It seems some who come here and say Iraq was wrong and no threat to the USA forget a few things.
Flopping Aces already has a large section on this as seen on the sideboard: Iraq/al-Qaeda Connections. Here are my additions.
- Saddam violated the Gulf War Cease Fire protocols continuously for 12 years. That is 12 YEARS of diplomacy, sanctions, limited bombings, threats of more land actions, more failed diplomacy, more threats, and more of Saddam thumbing his nose at the world while he illegally rearmed. A “Cease Fire” is not a peace treaty. Legally, the US could have responded at any time.
- Saddam, and many others, violated the “oil for food program” to the tune of billions of dollars/euros. This included untouchable high level members of the UN.
- Saddam, very publicly, financed terrorists in Palestine and had contacts with Al Qaeda. These include meetings with known operatives in the Czech Republic (confirmed by Czech internal security forces), the Salmon Pak (South of Baghdad) and the Ansar al-Islam (northern Iraq area) terrorist training camps (One of them held a painting of the WTC burning while Saddam smoked a cigar).
- Provided medical aid and training for Al Qaeda as they fled the Afghan area. A case in point is the confession by Al Qaeda terrorists captured in Jordan (2004) when they attempted to conduct a WMD attack (Sarin/VX gas and other chemicals:20 tons total, w/explosives: see links) in Amman, Jordan. These terrorists told the story of how they escaped Afghanistan, fled to Iraq, followed the convoys hauling goods out of Iraq before the Coalition invasion (remember those? The media doesn’t and they reported them), and ended up in the Becca Valley with the WMDs and Iraqi forces, working for a man named Zarqari. Name ring a bell? The Iraqis were STILL dealing with Taliban thugs in Baghdad when I was deployed there in early 2007.
- Openly defied UN resolutions, many with use of force clauses.
- Even during their final inspection in 2003, the UN teams were still finding MORE chemical weapons systems that Iraq “forgot” to document. Also included in the same report was two Iraqi surface to surface missile systems which greatly exceeded the range limitation stipulated by the cease fire (UN report titled: s-2003-232 :Twelfth quarterly report of the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission in accordance with paragraph 12 of Security Council resolution 1284 (1999))
- Continued attacks on Coalition aircraft patrolling the Iraqi agreed upon No-Fly Zones. Attacking US aircraft is an act of war.
- Sorties by MIG-25RB Aircraft into the southern No-Fly Zone (how he got those and maintained them with “sanctions” in place is a really good question). Entering the No-Fly Zone is an act of war.
- Attempted to assassinate a former US President.
- Provided aid and comfort to terrorists retreating from Afghanistan.
- Aided in the first attack on the World Trade Center through proxy and direct supply of Sarin components. This too is an act of war.
- Saddam had intimate knowledge of 9-11-01. His state-run media printed warnings that the US would be hit in the “arm that was hurting”, a reference to New York City. He also put his entire armed forces (refitted with NEW tanks) on alert days prior to 9-11.
- Saddam had WMDs. Every nation consulted (France, UK, Russia) and the UN all agreed he had them. Democrats on the Intelligence Committee sated he had them throughout the 1990s. Saddam boasted of fooling the inspectors in the 90s. We attacked him several times with aircraft and missiles in the 90s. Clinton even ordered the commencement of “Operation Desert Fox” to punish Iraq for non-compliance with inspectors. No one complained then.
- WMDs have been found all over Iraq. Usually in smaller amounts, but this is to be expected with the amount of warning Saddam had of the invasion.
To the leftists who will rant and rave at what I write, look at the links. Are you one of the left who “Supports the Troops when they kill their officers,” or do you advocate SF Indymedia’s more direct approach? Yes, right from Indygate’s’s own site!!
How About reports on the thwarted WMD attack on Jordan in 2004?
WMD Links and more evidence about WMDs
Investors.com(requires subscription, sorry)
More WMD stuff:
Captured Ba’athist “Safehouse”
Last UN Report on Iraq, including finding a number of 122mm Chemical Artillery Shells and R-400 Biological Weapon bombs filled with a liquid (after 12 YEARS of searching and “100% declarations” by Saddam’s Iraq). It also details Iraq’s Al-Sammoud missile program (range exceeds cease fire and UN mandates) and Iraq’s lack of cooperation of substance. You can access all of the UN Records here too.
Or, how Former Sec of State Allbright was surprised no WMDs were found:
And more:
And probably best of all, articles from the former Romanian spy chief, Ion Mihai Pacepa, which details the Russian efforts to hide WMDs of client states. Do you have any idea how far this was buried in the internet? If I didn’t know the author’s name and nationality, I would have never found it.
And since people love Wikipedia:
And finally this:
“Moreover, the IIS paper targeted a number of French individuals that the Iraqi’s thought had close relations to French President Chirac, including, according to the Iraqi assessment, the official spokesperson of President Chirac’s re-election campaign, two reported “counselors” of President Chirac, and two well-known French businessmen. In May 2002, IIS correspondence addressed to Saddam stated that a MFA (quite possibly an IIS officer under diplomatic cover) met with French parliamentarian to discuss Iraq-Franco relations. The French politician assured the Iraqi that France would use its veto in the UNSC against any American decision to attack Iraq, according to the IIS memo.
From Baghdad’s perspective, the MFA concluded that the primary motive for French continued support and cooperation with Iraq in the UN was economic. According to Tariq Aziz, French oil companies wanted to secure two large oil contracts; Russian companies not only wanted to secure (or lock in) oil contracts, but also sought other commercial contracts covering agricultural, electricity, machinery, food, and automobiles and trucks products. ….”
By the way, the US only exports 10-15% of the Mid-East’s oil. The big exporters are China, Japan, India, and Europe. So to the leftists, please stop the daily “two minutes hate” and your “quacking” it’s so very predictable and irrational.
WMDs in Iraq Recovered as of 2004 (unclassified version)
Nuclear:
- 1.95 tons of enriched uranium
- 1000 banned radioactive sources (cesium and other isotopes)
- 16 drums of yellowcake from Al-Qaim extraction plant
- An undisclosed rail gun system used to test nuclear detonations. Iraq developed this in secret in 1999. The gun was built at Al-Tahadi. It, along with 500 tons of natural uranium wsa found south of Baghdad in 2003.
Biological Agents.
- Live C. botulinum Okra B (makes batulinum toxin: 1 gram kills 10,000) found hidden in Iraqi Biological Weapon’s Scientist’s home.
- Discovered, continued, out-lawed and concealed, research on Brucella, Congo Crimean Hemorragic Fever (CCHF), ricin, and aflatoxin. None of this was declared to the UN even after 12 years of sanctions.
- Ricin discovered in Sargat, Iraq along with hidden sacks of castor beans (labeled as “fertilizer”) in al-Aziziyah.
- Human testing facilities (prisons) for BW agents.
- Mobile labs for BW agents buried in the desert. 11 found in Karbala.
- Mulitple small fixed BW sites/labs which the UN never knew about.
Chemical
- Multiple attacks against US troops using Mustard and Sarin gas filled shells
- Multiple attacks by terrorists against Iraqi civilians using chlorine gas
- Cyanide labs found in “Safe Houses” in fallujah
- 5,000 Lbs/2,268KG of Cyanide found in Taji (total cyanide as of 2004 was 2,370 Kg or 2.4 million leathal doses)
- Various Chemical Weapons Labs
My answer to the leftists who say “It’s our foreign policy that created terrorism” nonsense: Ever hear the Marine Hymn? That whole “Shores of Tripoli” line refers to the USMC and USN fighting the “Barbary Pirates”. Well, these “pirates” called themselves the “Mujahadin” and were waging a declared “Jihad” against the West (in the 1780s). And Europe was doing what it still does best: Appeasing. This sound familiar? In response, the US, against its argued principles of no standing Armed Forces, created the USN and the USMC to fight the Islamic terrorists. Who created who?
Questions for the islamofascists:
Open source intell that continues to debunk the left.
The Arab/Muslim Nazi Connection (why we call the terrorists ‘islamofascists’)
Debunking the 9-11 conspiracy by Popular Mechanics.
“Weapons of mass Destruction Found” by (Maj) Bryan Russell (NBC Officer, USAF) Great book to read on what was found in Iraq and Saddam’s connections to terrorism.
Unedited pictures showing what the left really is. Very Graphic!! Interesting are the signs that compare the President to Hitler (the two are complete opposites) and then call for the deaths of the Jews and destruction of Israel).