Uncovering the Truth about Going to War

[thedrifter]

10-11-2003

From the Editor:

Uncovering the Truth about Going to War

By Ed Offley



This is a message for Barbara and David McPhillips, Michael and Roxanne Kaylor, and the hundreds of other parents and spouses who still grieve for loved ones killed in Iraq since the U.S. invaded to topple Saddam Hussein?s regime.



Ignore the naysayers in the news media, forget the French and dismiss the Democratic presidential contenders, all of who are trying to persuade you that your father, husband and son ? or mother, wife or daughter ? died for nothing in Operation Iraqi Freedom and its tempestuous aftermath.



Your loved ones perished in a just conflict that was urgently required, fully justified and sanctioned by the United Nations and a bipartisan vote of Congress. Their service was honorable and their sacrifices warrant our eternal gratitude.



There is now solid proof that the prime justification for going to war ? Iraqi defiance of United Nations Resolution 1441 ? was true. The Iraq Survey Group (ISG), the international group of weapons inspectors headed up by David Kay, reported last week discoveries of concrete evidence that Iraq had illegally hidden its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs and efforts to build long-range ballistic missiles.



That resolution, unanimously adopted by the U.N Security Council on Nov. 8, 2002, in its own words gave Baghdad ?a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament provisions.?



In an op-ed column for The Washington Post on Nov. 10, 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that the U.N. resolution was unambiguous and clear on its intent:



?Saddam Hussein must give the inspectors immediate, unimpeded, unconditional and unrestricted access to uncover the weapons of mass destruction that he has had so many years to hide. Access not just to places such as presidential palaces but to people and other sources of information will be critical, because you have to know where and when to look in order to find biological and chemical weapons that are easy to conceal and move.?



?President Bush and both houses of Congress have emphasized that the United States prefers to see Iraq disarm under U.N. auspices without a resort to force. We do not seek a war with Iraq, we seek its peaceful disarmament. But we will not shrink from war if that is the only way to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. The Security Council has confronted Saddam Hussein and his regime with a moment of truth. If they meet it with more lies, they will not escape the consequences.?



Here?s what Kay and his inspectors have found so far:



* Iraqi officials engaged in ?deliberate dispersal and destruction of material and documentation related to weapons programs? before, during, and after the war ? a violation of U.N. Resolution 1441.



* The ISG located found proof that the Iraqi regime had concealed WMD supplies and facilities from U.N. inspectors, including a ?clandestine network of laboratories and safe houses [with] equipment ? suitable for continuing? chemical and biological warfare research ? a violation of U.N. Resolution 1441.



* Inspectors discovered ?a prison laboratory complex, possibly used in human testing of BW [biological warfare] agents, that Iraqi officials ? were explicitly ordered not to declare to the U.N.? ? a violation of U.N. Resolution 1441.



* The report noted that inspectors interviewed one Iraqi scientist who had hidden in his home ?a vial of live C. botulinum Okra B,? which is a precursor for the deadly botulism toxin ? a violation of U.N. Resolution 1441.



* Inspectors reported another Iraqi chemical weapons official told them that the Iraqi regime could have produced weaponized mustard gas within two months and Sarin, a lethal nerve agent, within two years ? a violation of U.N. Resolution 1441.



* Inspectors concluded that Saddam would have succeeded in building ballistic missiles with a range up to 600 miles had the U.S.-led invasion not occurred ? a violation of U.N. Resolution 1441 and its 1991 precursor, U.N. Resolution 687.



If this seems surprising to you, don?t be alarmed. Coverage, as usual, was twisted into incomprehensibility by the news media, which focused on the failure of inspectors to find caches of WMD weapons while ignoring the larger story that Iraq had breached the provisions of U.N. Resolution 1441.



The postwar debate over whether or not the U.S. government possessed adequate intelligence about Iraq?s WMD program ? or whether, in the now-infamous and discredited BBC report, authorities had ?sexed up? intelligence material to make it more convincing ? quickly morphed into a babble of voices in the political arena and news media arguing that the Bush administration had all but fabricated the evidence.



By ready transfer, the administration?s opponents have insinuated that those who fought and died in that war did so on a fool?s errand.



Angered by the distorted news coverage, Kay went on the Sunday talk shows and asserted, ?I?m sort of amazed at what was powerful information about both their intent and their actual activities that were not known and were hidden from U.N. inspectors seems not to have made it to the press. This is information that, had it been available last year, would have been headline news.?



Kay noted that ISG inspectors had made several explicit discoveries of concealed WMD programs that could have quickly gone into production of active agents: ?We now have three cases in which scientists have come forward with equipment, technology, diagrams, documents and, in this case, actual weapons material, reference strains and Botulinum toxin, that they were told to hide and that the U.N. didn?t find.?



It was a just war.



Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com.

http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/ne...read&forumid=6


Sempers,

Roger

[BLUEHAWK]

I'll just add this parenthetical comment to the above... if it is acceptable to defer to Iraq's violation of UN resolutions as a legal justification for an invasion, then it is only fair for people to acknowledge the authority of the United Nations and quit harping about their uselessness and cowardice. Any other position is unseemly, and makes America appear opportunist or hypocritical in world opinion.

[nang]

It was also reported today that of Iraqi citizens, 72% want the Americans to stay. I bet you won't hear that number thrown around alot.

[Boats]

These people have a tough sled ride ahead of them during this process or transition if you want call it that. Radicals will always be present to breakdown any efforts or gains made.

The people themselves will have to take hold of the reins and say where they want to be in five years and longer. Sure we will stay as long as we can but right now - this is really up them on how fast them make this adjustment to whatever society they want.

Once we're gone they will be hard pressed to get us back in there again. They don't know exactly how much appreciation they will until we are gone and if the proper controls are not in place they will quickly fall back under the reign of another tyrant and two more steps backwards. I really don't think the majority of these people want to go backwards anymore.

These are just my thoughts.