Here’s a thought, it might have always been known that there were no WMD. It has been known since the early 90’s that Iraq is an intelligence black hole. It was not known whether or not there were WMD in Iraq, but on balance, what were the chances that there was?
I’m troubled by a recent article in the Atlantic. Kenneth Pollack, a leading Iraq expert and intelligence analyst in the Clinton Administrationwhose book The Threatening Storm proved deeply influential in the run-up to the war, writes about what went wrong.
If you read anything this week, read that article.
If I was to speculate, wildly, I would say that Bush was duped too, it was Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz et al, in the administration who wanted to invade Iraq, for reasons all their own. Some indeed stated their intentions long before 2000. WMD was just a facade, a smokescreen to get American troops on Arab soil in order to spread the ideals of liberal democracy as espoused by Frank Fukuyama. Perhaps oil was involved, perhaps not. Perhaps strategic power was involved, perhaps not.
But I think I know one thing, I cant think of any war that has been fought on humanitarian grounds alone. Please name some to me, so at least I have some hope for humanity.