I would like to respond to the vitriol from THOMASCHH that followed my comments about WMD and terrorism links in respect the war in Iraq. You will notice that l will put my views across WITHOUT RESORTING to the popular tactic of “labelling” or “categorizing” a person with an alternative viewpoint so as to depict him or her as a person of inferior intellect.
I am not a sheep, nor am l a sheap for that matter. Just because l support a popular view, doesn’t mean I’m incapable of thinking for myself.
I will retract my previous comment about the Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction as being fabricated. That would infer that I believe they didn’t have any. Frankly, I’m not sure, one way or the other. But then, even Colin Powell couldn’t make up his mind.
In a speech in Cairo in February 2001, in answer to a question about the US led sanctions against Iraq, Powell said, “the fact that the sanctions exist – not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein’s ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbours of Iraq…”
Two years later, Powell is compelled to stand before the UN Security Council and make a case for war against Iraq based on information supplied by the White House, which, if not fabricated, was at the very least dubious beyond measure. I didn’t buy it then and l don’t buy it now. What Colin Powell was not told was that one of the sources who provided information about the alleged “bioweapons labs” mounted on trucks was a Iraqi defector who was regarded by the Defense Intelligence Agency as a liar and a fabricator. This was according to David Kay, the CIA’s chief weapons inspector in Iraq after the war.
That speech, by Secretary of State Powell was the precursor, the justification if you like for the invasion. It was rubbish. It was just an excuse.
I’m not afraid to say, I don’t support the war in Iraq, it should never have happened. It was doomed to failure from the start.
As was stated in a newspaper editorial today…..George Bush is caught between the impossibility of his beliefs and the harsh realities of the political and public opinion that he continues to misjudge. To him, Iraq is a war in which America can be victorious; to much of the wider world, it is a diabolical mess largely of America’s making that has to be cleaned up, not won. The President is marooned; America is isolated”. Couldn’t have put it better myself.
