Easy poll question here. For those of you that believe "they" found intelligence linking Russia and the election...did you also believe there were WMDs in Iraq? Simple question. I'll put a poll up to get some resolution. I personally do not have an opinion right now. I'd love to see some facts my self before I take a side. For the record, I'm not denying Russia hacked, nor am I saying they did. I'm skeptical.
Hmmm not so simple for me to answer. At that time I was in a position to know a great deal of what the US intelligence community thought about Iraqi WMD. As far as chemical and biological materials, yes I absolutely believed it, For any sort of nuclear program, I guess I was open to being convinced but i don't think that part of the case was made.
No one knows, He did however want everyone to believe he had them. If your point is do I always believe our intelligence services the answer is a definite no. I take everything with a grain of salt
I'm not looking for the right or wrong answer. I'm looking to see rational opinions. Especially from the left wing that all of the sudden is on the CIA's bandwagon. Such a drastic change.
They only believe it when it fits their purpose. Even with the intel I always opposed invading Iraq . The 1st Bush got it right and left Saddam in power.
I supported it at the time, but I was also in high school. Now looking back, I would have opposed due to international push back.
Whether he had them or not, he wanted everyone else to think he did. Even Saddam's own generals thought they had them.
What was implied by Bush was nukes and also that'd he use the chemical weapons menicengly which he didn't.
I'm sure he did have them. My theory is that he was in bed with Syria. However, we had geospatial imagery that was said to have seen the weapons. We know that not to be the case. That's all I'm saying
The CIA director during the Iraq war was George Tenet, and the present CIA director is John Brennan, we could never stereotype CIA. But it's actually there to serve US interest.
It was implied by almost every intelligence service. I dont trust government period never mind the intelligence community.
If you're talking about the bug-eyed, panicked reports from our U. S. alphabet intelligence agencies about how Saddam Hussein was supposedly about to show the world he had nuclear weapons...? NO. That was crap! And I raised more than few eyebrows at the big Federal Government Prime Contractor where I worked by saying so, too! I had come by unclassified information based on German intelligence in late summer of 2002 that Saddam had been faking the whole "nuclear" thing mostly to keep the Iranians from invading Iraq while it was weakened by "no-fly" and other actions the U. S. and our allies had taken. You would have thought that such professional organizations as the CIA, NSA, et al, could have figured it out, too, but for some reason, they didn't. So, poor old "W" Bush bought into the whole, long line of unprofessional, fraudulent crap, and the rest of the pathetic story we all know.... ."Saddam? Nukes? Ha... you didn't see Russia buying into any of that crap, now did you!
Wrong, misinformed, bad intelligence, lying? There's a major difference between those four. The question is, which one in 2003 and which one in 2017 (if any)?
They did in fact find WMD's in Iraq later on---not as soon or as much as they wanted. http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/10/16/new-york-times-reports-wmd-found-in-iraq
Yea I agree with that. I'm talking about the arsenal we saw on the geospatial imagery prior to the invasion
Many of you young kids in the Army don't take NBC warfare so seriously----but back 30 years ago---we did. We had our MOPP suits on during every FTX---ready to put on our masks and gloves. So the threat of Chemical Weapons Iraq did in fact have, and did in fact use in the past was real. I'm not saying I agreed with the idea of attacking Iraq, but the threats were real enough. The arsenal was perceived a potential threat.
You and I both know I'm talking about the arsenal of nuclear weaponry and materials that were shown on the geospatial imagery. There were large amounts that were missing when we went there. I'm not arguing with what you said.
Yes possibly. Perhaps the weapon inspectors didn't find any because they were buried out in the desert. Or perhaps they were just a few flasks of bio/chemical agent that could wipe out cities if poured into the water supply, and Saddam might have kept them hidden under his bed but the inspectors forgot to look there? Wonder what happened to them? Oh wait- ]
Yes, and if terrorists did get hold of some flasks of bio/chem brain-destroying agent to pour into Western water supplies to make people stupid, thankfully it hasn't worked. Oh wait...