Hans Blix deserves apology

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: Astaroth33
I agree. There is plenty of circumstantial evidence to indicate that Iraq does indeed have WMD (all those chem suits and atropine injectors, for one) that direct evidence should turn up as people begin to talk now that the regime's influence has been neutralized.

I'm sorry, but those prove absolutely nothing. Hell, gas-masks are standard equipment of Finnish soldiers, by your logic that irrefutable evidence that Finland has WMD's?

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: DaveSohmer

Originally posted by: SuperTool
Here is another valid point. Saddam hasn't used WMD even when faced with death. There goes out of the window the assertion that he would use it agains his neighbors with no provocation.

It proves nothing. It is just as possible that Saddam wasn't capable of issuing the orders authorizing their use.

In that case the Iraqi troops would have unused chemical weapons at their posession. None were found.

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: Ornery
WHEN the WMDs are found, Bush WILL be vindicated. Blix and France will babble some kind of excuse.

I have no doubt in my mind that US will somehow arrange it that WMD's are found in Iraq. They simply can't afford to start a war, only to find that the main reason for that war doesn't exist. So they will arrange it, one way or the other

 

[yowolabi]

Originally posted by: blade

Blix and company NEVER would have found anything. Only reason they had any influence at all, is because we had our troops at the border. How long were we supposed to leave them sitting there?

Exactly!


But how long would they take to find anything? Just as soon as Iraq repaid france and germany and their oil contracts were either over with or declared invalid.

"Never" is the answer.

Blix was suggested by France to break an impasse, he was not picked by them. Blix has such a great pedigree and was so well respected, that while the UN was divided between the other choices, they agreed unanimously on the choice of Hans Blix. Kofi Annan personally reccommended him also.

Holbrooke, the current Security Council president, said the members "found consensus on only one, Hans Blix of Sweden, another distinguished international civil servant."

"We think he is an excellent choice. We are very moved by his willingness to undertake such a difficult task at this stage in his long and illustrious career," Holbrooke said.

A guess as to what other title Holbrooke has? U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

LInk

Blix was not corrupt or in anyone's back pocket. He was Swedish, not French or German , and universally approved. There was no reason for him to favor France over the US, and your theory on him waiting around for France to receive money from Iraq is atom thin, even as conspiracy theories go.

 

[LunarRay]

Quote by Yowolabi

Blix was not corrupt or in anyone's back pocket. He was Swedish, not French or German , and universally approved. There was no reason for him to favor France over the US, and your theory on him waiting around for France to receive money from Iraq is atom thin, even as conspiracy theories go.[/quote]

He, Blix, would be my pick of anyone on earth. He has worked for the UN for years, is an International Attorney and is beyond reproach. If he says his troup looked for and found no WMD then I feel you can take it to the bank. Now then, after heaing the US government testify about '91 gulf war chemical issues and flat out lie as well as testify about Viet Nam issues and flat out lie... UNDER OATH (which means something to me) I... well... have adjusted my acceptance as true anything that is self serving on the part of some of our leaders.

 

[Moonbeam]

You got that right HDJ1. Like I always say: "There's an old saying in Tennessee ? I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee ? that says, fool me once, shame on ? shame on you. Fool me ? you can't get fooled again."

 

[LunarRay]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
You got that right HDJ1. Like I always say: "There's an old saying in Tennessee ? I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee ? that says, fool me once, shame on ? shame on you. Fool me ? you can't get fooled again."

Sorta like the magic bullet theory propounded by then, comittee counsel Arlen Specter.

I say when consumed by stress it is good to pet the kitty... to know the difference between a kitty and a tiger... and realize that the petting of a tiger from within does little for those consumed by the stress. I get very stressed when my veracity is questioned by a government because they can.

 

[technogeeky]

Originally posted by: bentwookie
..thank God he went back into retirement. good riddence.


barneyfife has proven his ignorance today...congrats! If you know someone is coming into your house looking for a specific thing..would you leave it in the same place?

Would it take 300,000 troops to find this thing?

 

[Alistar7]

Originally posted by: technogeeky

Originally posted by: bentwookie
..thank God he went back into retirement. good riddence.


barneyfife has proven his ignorance today...congrats! If you know someone is coming into your house looking for a specific thing..would you leave it in the same place?

Would it take 300,000 troops to find this thing?

Is your house the size of California? Do you have BILLIONS at your disposal to pay for hiding them?

Can we ask why good ole Blix missed these?




April 21 issue ? The French government insists that it has strictly enforced a tight embargo imposed on Saddam Hussein?s regime by the United Nations in 1990. But Saddam never lost his taste for French weapons or luxury goods. And evidence found by U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq suggests that?despite U.N. sanctions?the dictator continued to receive an abundant supply of both until very recently.

"LT. GREG HOLMES, a tactical intelligence officer with the Third Infantry Division, told NEWSWEEK that U.S. forces discovered 51 Roland-2 missiles, made by a partnership of French and German arms manufacturers, in two military compounds at Baghdad International Airport. One of the missiles he examined was labeled 05-11 KND 2002, which he took to mean that the missile was manufactured last year. The charred remains of a more modern Roland-3 launcher was found just down the road from the arms cache. According to a mortar specialist with the same unit, radios used by many Iraqi military trucks brandished MADE IN FRANCE labels and looked brand new. RPG night sights stamped with the number 2002 and French labels also turned up. And a new Nissan pickup truck driven by a surrendering Iraqi officer was manufactured in France as well."

Does this prove he was working to protect the French, not a chance. I wouldn't blame him for anything, the UN was supposed to be SHOWN the weapons, not search for them, and the only thing consistent with Saddam and the inspections was his noncompliance.

 

[PowerMacG5]

Originally posted by: BarneyFife

Originally posted by: Alistar7

Originally posted by: BarneyFife Many people were ridiculing him because he couldn't find anything. Well the Marines have been in there for 3 weeks and have found nothing either. As a matter of fact, the government is offering people monetary rewards if they give information of wmd. This means that they are also clueless. Where are all the locations Colon Powell named off? If it holds true and they don't find anything, I would assume that the UN weapons inspections, sanctions, and the no fly zone worked and Saddam Hussein was actually honest. I'm sure the administration will come up with a great lie "They transported the wmd into Syria, lets get them next".

Yeah he only had 12 years and somehow Saddam still had enough BANNED missiles and other weapons he managed to take out some tanks and hit Kuwait City...

Those weren't banned weapons. He was allowed to have missiles that traveled up to 95 miles and who says he wasn't allowed to have weapons that took down tanks?

Wrong, what he used were illegal. He used SCUD missiles, which are illegal under international law.

 

[Bowfinger]

Originally posted by: KraziKid


Wrong, what he used were illegal. He used SCUD missiles, which are illegal under international law.

Although several early news reports mentioned "SCUD" missles, those reports were incorrect. None of the Iraqi missles used this time were SCUDs. Blame this on ignorant or sensationalistic media.

Several missles used against Kuwait did exceed U.N. restrictions by a few km, however, according to U.S. military sources. They just weren't SCUDs.

 

[Alistar7]

An Iraqi scientist who claims to have worked in Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s chemical weapons program told a U.S. military team that Iraq (news - web sites) destroyed and buried chemical weapons and biological warfare equipment only days before the war began March 20, a newspaper reported Monday.


Members of MET Alpha ? the Mobile Exploitation Team set up to hunt for illegal weapons of mass destruction ? said the scientist led Americans to material that proved to be the building blocks of illegal weapons, according to The New York Times.


The Iraqi scientist, who was not named for fear he might be harmed, also said Iraq has secretly sent stockpiles of deadly agents and weapons technology to Syria in the mid-1990s, and more recently was cooperating with Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaida terror network.

Are we going to get an apology from Hans?

 

[Kipper]

"Building blocks" does not translate into WMD. I am particularly suprised at the humanitarian slant this war has suddenly taken after the United States government realized it wasn't going to be the "one week war" the advertised at the beginning, or that WMD would be seemingly harder to find than they expected. Regardless, we had better help the Iraqis rebuild or we will be regretting the day we left them again when 20 years from now, some terrorist decides to blow up another building :disgust: - remember, we're still busy cleaning up after the inept Cold-War foreign policy. Saddam, Osama, these are all byproducts of that short-term foreign outlook.

 

[Alistar7]

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease
"Building blocks" does not translate into WMD. I am particularly suprised at the humanitarian slant this war has suddenly taken after the United States government realized it wasn't going to be the "one week war" the advertised at the beginning, or that WMD would be seemingly harder to find than they expected. Regardless, we had better help the Iraqis rebuild or we will be regretting the day we left them again when 20 years from now, some terrorist decides to blow up another building :disgust: - remember, we're still busy cleaning up after the inept Cold-War foreign policy. Saddam, Osama, these are all byproducts of that short-term foreign outlook.

Seems your perception of history is somewhat limited. How is it we left anyone? We were Afghanistans largest donor of aid until soviet ocupation, and we financied the opposition that removed them and gave back the people of Afghan self rule, THEY CHOSE the Taliban, who made alliances with Al-Queeda, that was their decision.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of communism in the FORMER USSR, yet other byproducts of that "short-sighted" policy......