What We Know

Atrios reflects on the lead up to war.


They said he had WMD and, under the shitty definition of that word we've embraced, it's possible they believed it even if they didn't have the evidence they claimed to have (which was obvious at the time and one of many reasons I opposed this thing). But the kinds of weapons they believed they had were, for the most part, only useful as a deterrent to invasion, which appears to be the reason Saddam let the rumors about his evil laboratories persist. They just wouldn't be useful either for direct military uses or even for terrorist blackmail.

Believed in WMDs they hyped? Perhaps. Believed in the threat they hyped? Nope.

It kills me every time I hear some Bush apologist talk about how in the run up to war, "we ALL" thought Iraq had WMDs, and that every intelligence agency in the world backed up the US's claims. Oh please. If I knew the administration was lying, a LOT of other people did too. It just happens that the political atmosphere at the time made it nearly impossible to call them on it.