Questions about Iraq war, weapons of mass destruction, Saddam, etc...

[battleknight24]

So what did happen to Saddam's weapons of mass destruction? Were they destroyed long ago or somewhat recently (meaning about a year or two before the invasion in 2003)? He did have WMD's at one point didn't he? Is it at all possible or plausible that Saddam did have weapons that were moved to neighboring countries before the invasion? <I know, I know... at least humor me a little...>

Does anyone have any detailed insight as to the destructive capabilities Iraq had under Saddam?


Peace,

[RC]

1. The weapons which we sold him had a maximum shelf life of

10 to 12 years at best. The expire date had long expired. This administration knew that because they still have the receipts from when they sold him this stuff.

[battleknight24]

4. Q: The chemicals in the weapons he had...

... only remained potent and enriched for a period of a few years? What kinds of weapons were they? Biological? Chemical? Just curious.


Peace,

[wtmusic]

5. Both

The VX only remained potent for two years; the anthrax was a very poor grade that looked more like Coca-cola syrup than white powder (according to Peter Zimmerman, who served as the Chief Scientist of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from August 2001 until January 2003)

[TheFarseer]

2. There is no concensus on this

The theory that I believe is the wepons inspectors were satisfied that they had found and destroyed all his WMDs in '97 and pulled out - this is what people on Fox News refer to as that time that Saddam threw the weapons inspectors out. It is possible that he still had some after '97 hidden away somewhere and now they are in Syria, but I think this is rather unlikely with 6 or so years of inspections, inspections leading up to Gulf War II, and satelites looking for weapons moving to Syria. I suppose it's possible that they are still buried somewhere, but IMO, by far the most likely scenario at this point is that they were destroyed between Gulf War I and 1997.

[wtmusic]

3. There is plenty of consensus on it

it's just that you won't hear it on Fox News.

There have been no WMDs in Iraq since 1992.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0226-01.htm
http://middleeastreference.org.uk/kamel.html

[housewolf]

6. According to Scott Ritter

UN Weapons Inspector until 1998, 95%-98% of the weapons were destroyed before 1995. The problem was that the Iraqis didn't keep records so they could never provide the documentation the UN required.

Why Saddam did't just say so remains a mystery - did his weapons team lie to him so that he thought he had them? Did he want to scam his neighbors so that they thought he was stronger than he was? We don't know this piece of the puzzle. Maybe we will find out as a result of his trial.

[rman]

7. Gulf War 1 and the UN

took care of Saddam's WMD's.

The worst weapons he had were Scuds that could (and did) reach Israel. Those were taken out during GW1, along with most of Iraq's conventional military capabilities.
Iraq did in fact comply perfectly with the vast majority of UN inspections and in those cases where it didn't, it was minor issues.

That's why many people didn't believe Iraq had WMDs.