No, Bush was not right about Iraq: How conservatives misread new Times bombshell

[kpete]

the Times report, far from vindicating George W. Bush, is actually just further proof of the gross political manipulation that lay at the heart of the disastrous conflict he started:


WEDNESDAY, OCT 15, 2014 10:15 AM PDT
No, Bush was not right about Iraq: How conservatives misread new Times bombshell
The right says a new NY Times report on chemical weapons in Iraq vindicates Bush. Even Team Bush disagrees!



.............

.....No, George W. Bush was not right about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Now, I know what you’re going say. “But look! The Times says they found WMDs in Iraq! The liberal media was wrong! Bush was right!” No, Bush was still very wrong. Very, very wrong.

Before we get into the actual reasons for why this doesn’t vindicate Bush, let’s think about this logically for moment. If the presence of these weapons proved Bush correct, then it stands to reason that the Bush administration would have come out at some point and said “hey, look at these weapons, we got it right.” But they never did that. They knew the weapons were there, and they had many years to wave them around as proof positive that they didn’t get many thousands of people killed based on false information, so why didn’t they do it?

The reason is very simple, and the Times report conservatives are claiming vindicates Bush actually explains very clearly why it does no such thing: “The United States had gone to war declaring it must destroy an active weapons of mass destruction program. Instead, American troops gradually found and ultimately suffered from the remnants of long-abandoned programs, built in close collaboration with the West.” Many of the weapons, according to the Times, “appeared to have been designed in the United States, manufactured in Europe and filled in chemical agent production lines built in Iraq by Western companies.”

The discovery of old, degraded chemical munitions in Iraq is not news. The Bush administration went to war expecting to find older weapons, along with a thriving new chemical weapons program (that didn’t exist). Ten years ago, the final report of the weapons inspectors sent to find Saddam Hussein’s WMDs (commonly known as the Duelfer Report) was released, and it noted that “a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered” in the country, but that Iraq had not produced any new weapons.


MORE:
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/15/no_bush_was_not_right_about_iraq_how_conservatives_misread_new_times_bombshell/

[jwirr]

1. We knew the rw was going to go bonkers with this article. They need to read the whole thing. But

in reality it does not matter what they say - this is what they have believed from the beginning. Now they just think they have proof.

[Enthusiast]

2. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch! Idiots!