Re: SOME SURPRISING IRAQ WMD QUOTES.....

Even Clinton said there were WMD! This claim, while accurate, is completely
irrelevant to the question of whether Bush lied us to war. What follows are
a few of the things Clinton and Democrats didn't say in the run-up to war.
Yet these are claims-starting in the fall of 02-which took us to war in
Iraq:

1) President Clinton didn't say: That Saddam could have a nuke within six
months. That was the statement of Vice President Cheney-and it contradicted
the state of the intelligence.
2) President Clinton didn't say: That there was only one use for those
aluminum tubes-that the tubes could only be used in nukes. That statement
was made by Condoleezza Rice. It contradicted the state of the intelligence.

3) President Clinton didn't say: That Iraq had unmanned aerial vehicles
which it "could use...to deliver biological weapons to its neighbors or, if
transported, to other countries including the United States." That clownish
claim was made by Colin Powell in his presentation before the UN-the
presentation which ended debate about the war. (In Plan of Attack, Bob
Woodward drew a devastating picture of the way Powell assembled this report.
Liberal elites ignored it, though. Reading books is just too gosh-darn
hard.)

4) President Clinton didn't say: That Iraq could fire up its chemical and
biological weapons within 45 minutes. That was President Bush, in September
2002-making the statement which George Tenet derided as "the 45-minute
***." President Clinton wasn't talking this "***;" it was Bush who was
talking it. (In Plan of Attack, Bob Woodward describes Tenet ridiculing Bush's
statement this way. Liberal elites ignored it.)

5) President Clinton didn't say: That Saddam was seeking uranium from
Africa. Whatever you've decided about this claim-we'd say it played an
extremely small role in the run-up to war-it wasn't Bill Clinton who made
it.

6) And, of course, President Clinton didn't say: That Iraq was involved in
September 11. That was the Bush team, over and over. The claim was made to
build the impression that Saddam was inclined to attack us. With those UAVs,
for example. In as little as forty-five minutes.

The concept here isn't all that tough. Yes, most people did believe that
Iraq would have chemical or biological weapons. We'd assume that the Bush
Admin actually thought this too.
But chemical and biological weapons weren't a threat to the United States-so
the Bush Admin began to pimp the idea that Saddam might also have nukes. The
heavy pimping of the nukes began in August 2002-driven by blatant
misstatements by Cheney, Rice and Bush, not by Clinton. At the same time, we
heard that Saddam's UAVs could deliver chem and bio to this country-and we
heard that Saddam would surely do so if he could. (Just look at his role in
September 11!) Bill Clinton didn't say these things-these things were said
by Bush/Cheney/Rice. And these were the claims, in the fall of 02, which
actually took the nation to war. The claim that Saddam had WMD was not the
claim which took us to war. It was the claims we've listed above-claims
which were not made by Clinton.


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