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Stop saying everyone was fooled by Iraq intelligence
2005.11.17 — Government | War | by Derek Jensen
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O! How were we ever fooled? [Tysto original after Sam Brown] |
This is part one of a two part article. Look for part two: "WMDs didn’t matter, stupid."
The Republican line on Iraq lately has been "We got fooled by bad intelligence, but, hey, so did everybody else." John McCain repeated it again on Face the Nation on November 13. There are a couple of problems with this. First of all: it's not true.
Hell, ever'body thought it was true, didn't they? McCain cited France, Russia, and Israel. And Congress saw the same intelligence the president did, right? The Bush administration can't be blamed for having bad intelligence, now can they?
Well... no, wrong, no they didn't, and yes.
The truth is, except for the UK, our allies in Europe did not fully believe that Iraq had WMDs or a nuclear program or posed any kind of threat to the US or the rest of the world. They were open to the idea, but the numbers just didn't add up, so they didn't think military action was warranted. And, up until September 11, 2001, neither did we.
Europe [was] unconvinced that Iraq had WMDs.... And, up until September 11, 2001, neither did we. |
In 2001, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice and CIA director George Tenet said that Saddam was contained and had no significant weapons capabilities. [Watch the video.] September 11 was the big opportunity to raise international ire against our foes in the Middle East. Of course, the administration couldn't tie Saddam to the attacks in New York and Washington (not that Cheney didn't try), so they had to find another excuse. That excuse became WMDs.
[T]he administration couldn't tie Saddam to the attacks in New York and Washington (not that Cheney didn't try).... |
George Tenet's "slam dunk" intelligence that he and Powell and Rice were all wrong about Iraqi WMDs has been shown to be wishful thinking, hearsay, tall tales, and willful naivety. The reason our intelligence was riddled with holes is that the Bush administration repeatedly and forcefully demanded the CIA and other organizations look, look again, and find something, damn it.
Then, when Bush took his case to Congress, he removed all the CIA's weasel words, foot-shuffling, and caveats.
The French had a major stake in Iraq's oil and were adamanantly opposed to war with Iraq, working instead directly with Saddam for diplomatic regime change. Why? They actually had spies on the ground in Iraq telling their leaders that there were apparently no WMDs.
French intelligence was telling us that there was effectively no real evidence of a WMD programme. That's why France wanted a longer extension on the weapons inspections. The French, the Germans and the Russians all knew there were no weapons there -- and so did Blair and Bush as that's what the French told them directly. Blair ignored what the French told us and instead listened to the Americans.
Vladimir Putin agreed with France that there was no convincing evidence.
The Bush administration... had ample warning... that its faith-based intelligence gathering was dead wrong. |
And, of course, Hans Blix and his UN inspectors, on the ground in Iraq with full access until shortly before the invasion found nothing.
And even some of us regular Americans weren't fooled.
Everyone agreed that Saddam probably had WMDs. But few people agreed that the evidence was any good. And nobody thought that invading Iraq because they might have WMDs was a good idea.
Except the neocons.
And that's the second thing wrong with the party line.
Look for part two: "WMDs didn’t matter, stupid."
f e e d b a c k
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