{"id":8421,"date":"2015-05-21T05:04:10","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T12:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=8421"},"modified":"2015-05-22T06:14:36","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T13:14:36","slug":"were-still-dumbing-down-the-iraq-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/were-still-dumbing-down-the-iraq-war\/","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019re Still Dumbing Down the Iraq War"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The truth about the danger of Saddam Hussein and why we went into Iraq.<\/em><\/h3>\n

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo via FrontPage Magazine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jeb Bush tangled himself up recently when he tried to answer a dumb question on the intelligence failures about Iraq\u2019s WMDs and their role in going to war with Saddam Hussein in 2003. I\u2019m not interested in the media\u2019s usual pointless chatter about the incident, or in the other Republican hopefuls who circled to plunge a spear in Jeb like the Greeks jabbing the dead Hector. More troubling is the continuing dumbing down of the context and circumstances that surrounded the decision to go to war.<\/p>\n

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Start first with the mood of the country in the aftermath of the 9\/11 attacks. After the shock and grief came the recriminations about the government\u2019s failure to \u201cconnect the dots\u201d and anticipate an attack that al Qaeda had telegraphed in word and bloody deed for nearly a decade. And that destruction had been wrought by a mere 19 terrorists, who armed only with box cutters had killed 3000 and injured 6000 Americans, and cost the economy $2 trillion, according to one estimate. No one wanted to find out what havoc terrorists armed with WMDs could wreak.<\/p>\n

In the case of Iraq, there were many \u201cdots\u201d the connection of which pointed to just such a much greater disaster. Saddam Hussein had a long record of attacking his neighbors and slaughtering his own people, and he had used chemical weapons during the war with Iran and on Iraqi Kurds. He had serially violated 16 U.N. resolutions and the terms of the first Gulf War cease-fire agreement. For most of the 1990s he had evaded his responsibility under those resolutions and agreements to disclose his WMD facilities and stockpiles, until in 1998 he simply kicked the weapons inspectors out of the country. The sanctions regime, which was supposed to change his behavior, had become a farce. Hussein claimed the sanctions had killed a million children, creating a public relations nightmare for the U.S., all the while the corrupt U.N. food-for-oil program was putting billions into Hussein\u2019s pockets. Meanwhile France and Russia were pushing for an end to sanctions so they could get back to doing profitable business with Hussein and oil-rich Iraq. Finally, Hussein had a record of giving support to terrorists, including vicious Palestinian murderer Abu Nidal and bin Laden\u2019s future lieutenant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and making payments to families of Palestinian Arab murderers of Israeli women and children.<\/p>\n

Given the picture created by these facts, the U.S. Congress in 1998 passed the Iraq Liberation Law, which stated \u201cthat it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the Saddam Hussein regime from power in Iraq and to replace it with a democratic regime.\u201d This law was passed because by the end of the decade it was obvious that Hussein was not contained \u201cin the box,\u201d as many claimed. Certainly President Clinton didn\u2019t think so: in February 1998 he said of Hussein, \u201cWhat if he fails to comply [with the U.N. resolutions], and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction. And some day, some way, I guarantee you, he\u2019ll use the arsenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clinton\u2019s hypothetical in part came to pass\u2013\u2013just as, by the way, it is coming to pass again in the case of Iran today. Hussein did not comply with the resolutions, but now the attacks of 9\/11 had awakened us to the consequences of inaction and the danger of thinking that diplomacy could solve a decade-long problem. Thus on October 16, 2002, Congress passed with strong bipartisan support the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution, which was followed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, number 17 in the catalogue of U.N. futility. This latest resolution gave Hussein one month to come clean on his WMD programs and stockpiles or face \u201cserious consequences.\u201d Both the U.N. and the U.S. Congress based these actions on the global intelligence community\u2019s consensus that the programs and stockpiles existed. But where the U.N. was, as usual, simply blustering and issuing empty threats, George Bush, backed by the U.S. Congress, meant what he said.<\/p>\n

Another point, as the Wall Street Journal<\/i> notes, missed in the current revisiting of the Iraq war is that the Congressional authorization had several casus belli other than just WMDs: Hussein\u2019s \u201cbrutal repression of its civilian population,\u201d its \u201ccontinuing hostility toward, and willingness to attack, the United States,\u201d its willingness \u201cto aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations, including organizations that threaten the lives and safety of United States citizens,\u201d and its numerous breaches of international law and U.N. resolutions were all part of the resolution. Perhaps in peaceful times such aggression could be overlooked, and such threatening resolutions dismissed as political rhetoric. But after 9\/11, few people were in the mood to roll the dice that a proven psychopathic murderer with suspected WMD capabilities and a track record of using them could be safely ignored. When the war began in March 2003, 72% of Americans thought it was the right decision.<\/p>\n

In the end, of course, large stockpiles were not discovered, though evidence of programs and some munitions were found. Last year, for example, the New York Times<\/i> reported<\/a> [2]<\/sup>that from 2004 to 2011, American troops had encountered 5000 \u201cchemical warheads, shells, and aviation bombs.\u201d\u00a0 Additionally, two tons of low-enriched uranium were removed in 2004, and the head of Saddam\u2019s centrifuge program turned over blueprints and components for centrifuges he had buried in his garden. As the 2004 report<\/a> [3]<\/sup> of the Iraq Survey Group wrote, \u201cThere is an extensive, yet fragmentary and circumstantial, body of evidence suggesting that Saddam pursued a strategy to maintain a capability to return to WMD after sanctions were lifted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet what critics continually ignore is the fact that the only reason they can rail that Hussein did not possess WMDs\u2013\u2013a fact no intelligence agency or years of U.N. inspections had been able to determine\u2013\u2013 is because the U.S. military invaded and settled the question. If we hadn\u2019t, it\u2019s not hard to imagine that increasing pressure from our allies and critics to relax the sanctions would have borne fruit, oil revenues would have begun to flow into Hussein\u2019s coffers, and those programs restarted and stockpiles replenished. Moreover, according to the Iraq Survey Group, \u201cSaddam aspired to develop a nuclear capability\u2013\u2013in an incremental fashion, irrespective of international pressure and the resulting economic risks\u2013\u2013but he intended to focus on ballistic missiles and tactical chemical warfare capabilities.\u201d If Hussein had succeeded, what would have been the consequences for our security and interests and those of our allies in the region? Inaction has as many risks and unforeseen consequences as action, a lesson we learned grievously on 9\/11. The \u201cno WMDs\u201d meme that tripped up Jeb Bush oversimplifies the reality of Hussein\u2019s ambitions and the danger they posed to the U.S.<\/p>\n

Bush didn\u2019t help his candidacy with his careless answer to a question more suitable for a high school paper. He should have taken the opportunity to turn the question about Iraq\u2019s current disorder back to where it really belongs: Obama\u2019s strategically idiotic but politically driven decision to pull all our forces from a country which, despite all the earlier missteps and bungling, by the time he took office was stable. Instead he reprised our dishonorable behavior toward South Vietnam and traded our soldiers\u2019 sacrifices and our country\u2019s interests for a mess of partisan political pottage. That\u2019s the real point everyone should be making about Iraq instead of rehashing the Democrats\u2019 stale \u201cno WMDs\u201d talking point.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http:\/\/www.frontpagemag.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

URL to article: http:\/\/www.frontpagemag.com\/2015\/bruce-thornton\/were-still-dumbing-down-the-iraq-war\/<\/strong><\/p>\n

URLs in this post:<\/p>\n

[1] Image: http:\/\/www.frontpagemag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/war.jpg<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[2] reported: http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2014\/10\/14\/world\/middleeast\/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html?_r=0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[3] report: https:\/\/www.cia.gov\/library\/reports\/general-reports-1\/iraq_wmd_2004<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2015 FrontPage Magazine. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The truth about the danger of Saddam Hussein and why we went into Iraq. by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine Jeb Bush tangled himself up recently when he tried to answer a dumb question on the intelligence failures about Iraq\u2019s WMDs and their role in going to war with Saddam Hussein in 2003. I\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[59,842,22],"tags":[1004,76],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2bP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5313,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/deconstructing-kerrys-case-against-president-bush-part-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":8421,"position":0},"title":"Deconstructing Kerry’s Case Against President Bush: Part One","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers Now that we've heard in two debates the Kerry-Edwards case against President Bush, we should look critically at the Democrats' position. Kerry's most important charge is that Bush mishandled the war in Iraq: that it was (and presumably still is) \"the wrong war at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8544,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-iran-failure-has-many-fathers\/","url_meta":{"origin":8421,"position":1},"title":"The Iran Failure Has Many Fathers","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The dangerous belief that words alone can transcend an eternal truth of human nature. by Bruce S. 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The blame game mostly fingers incompetent Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. Or is Barack Obama culpable for pulling out all American troops monitoring the\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 11 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 11 comments","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/looking-back-at-iraq-2\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8428,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/were-we-right-to-take-out-saddam\/","url_meta":{"origin":8421,"position":3},"title":"Were We Right to Take Out Saddam?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Public opinion veers with every change in current conditions in Iraq. by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online Probable Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush got himself into trouble by sort of, sort of not, answering the question whether he would have supported going into Iraq in 2003 \u2014 had he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iraq"","block_context":{"text":"Iraq","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iraq\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Marine Corps armor in Nasiriyah, March 2003. 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Then as now, Democrats have taken the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iran"","block_context":{"text":"Iran","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iran\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8421"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8434,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8421\/revisions\/8434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}