Originally posted by: Alistar7
Originally posted by: isaacmacdonald
Originally posted by: Alistar7
Originally posted by: isaacmacdonald
Originally posted by: Zipp
This "it's been 12 years - far too long" stuff is a bunch of BS. The reason we wanted him to disarm in the first place was so that he wouldn't be able to launch another attack on someplace like Kuwait. Here it is 12 years later, and he hasn't attacked anybody. It makes the issue of whether he has weapons or not moot, since he's obviously not using them.
Saddam more than likely has a chit load of pretty bad chemical and biological weapons hidden and eventually he's going to be sick of being contained. Or his son will when he takeover.
Christ,even Clinton said he could hand it off to someone though he didn't do much about it:
1998 interview w/Jim Lehrer
Think how many can be killed by just a tiny bit of anthrax, and think about how it's not just that Saddam Hussein might put it on a Scud missile, an anthrax head, and send it on to some city he wants to destroy.
Think about all the other terrorists and other bad actors who could just parade through Baghdad and pick up their stores if we don't take action.
Bill Clinton
That's largely rhetorical (aimed at lay people). Again, you don't just slap a canister of run of the mill anthrax onto a scud and fire it. Effectively deploying biological weapons requires a lot of hightech delivery mechanisms. Again, we were actually supporting iraq and giving them chemical weapons while they were at war with Iran, and iraq was still crushed.
Nukes are another story, but again, all intelligence suggests he has no nukes, and would require at least 6 years of unencumbered development to start mfg'ing them.
my favorite "high-tech" delivery system for anthrax was the us postal system, what technology that required.....
Yes, and look at the huge death toll! The key word was "effective". You can certainly throw canisters of anthrax all around and kill a bunch of people, but to make it any more, or even equally effective as a hand gernade, you need to have functional methods of disbursing anthrax that is mounted on your scud. The palestinians represent much more of a threat than Iraq does.
The point of a terrorist is to create FEAR, if they achieve this it is considered EFFECTIVE.
The PLO represent no threat to the US, they are too focused on Israel anyway. For those worldwide that claim this is being done for Israel's benefit you forget Israel has the most powerfull military in the region and can quite easily defend themselves. While Saddam may pay off families of plo and hamas suicide bombers and call for the destruction of Israel, other than tossing a few puds their way in desert storm doesn't engage with Israel directly. The call for a viable Palestinian state also makes this "theory" out of touch with reality.
Why should the US call for a vote when Saddam has already violated 17 resolutions a total of 333 times? Why should the US pay 1 billion dollars a day to keep the pressure on Saddam, the only reason he is "complying" right now? Why can't France, Germany, and Russia stand by their word when they signed 1441 and all previous resolutions? One only has to look at Vietnam to see how well the French keep their word. The simple fact is France has expressly stated they would veto any resolution that would give Saddam an ultimatum, or authorize the use of force. Their opposition to resuming the war actually dates back to 1998, apparently they always assumed they would be able to buy more time for Saddam.
France, Germany, and Russia will all admit there are WMD in Iraq, they will all agree there has not been full compliance. Unfortunately they are under the delusion this will change for some reason, perhaps France should have offered to pay for our troops while we gave Saddam the time he needed. The French are now willing to consider a 30 day timeline, if Saddam could disarm in 30 days or less why has it taken 12 years?
For those that ask will there be a turn in support once WMD are used, who says they will be used in conflict? I have a feeling they might be, Saddam understands his number is up, he has nothing to lose. The important thing is the US will be shown to be correct on this issue as well though. The level of naivety is somewhat shocking honestly. WMD will be found in Iraq, the US will see to that, whether we find them or PLANT them, they will be found...