A sudden thought

[khaosworks]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but this occurred to me a few days back.

Is the reason why Bush and Co. are so insistent that Iraq is hiding something because they know exactly how much material to make WMD the United States sold to Saddam?

Comments

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

Frankly?

I'd say it's a good bet.

Unfortunately.

[jost.livejournal.com]

On a purely surface level I would say no. If you've got records of how much material you sold to Saddam some 20+ years ago then there's very little political harm in revealing it entirely. If, on the other hand, the majority of your information is coming from agents inside that are still providing information then the risk of revealing your data is drastic to those agents on the inside. It wouldn't make much sense if we had sales data from a different administration's dealings and didn't reveal it while still rattling the sabre.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the past administration that sold the weapons would be a Republican one, and thus that would be embarassing. Interestingly enough, Ari has been ducking questions about who gave Saddam those weapons (see here.

If it was as simple as blaming it on another administration, why not just say it? The inference would be is because it would be embarassing to admit that your own party - and in fact, the very people who are pressing for war, Rumsfeld, et al. - were responsible for that situation in the first place.

[eviltofu.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. Didn't the first UN Inspection report that 90% of the weapons of mass destruction have been accounted for?

I think the main reason is that B&C won't have a leg to stand on if Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Well, I've been saying that for months -- "Of course Iraq has Weapons of Mass Destruction [1]. We sold them to him!"

Love,
-R

[1] "Oh, that word!" --Ben Franklin

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

It's one of two likelihoods. The other is that Bush doesn't care if Iraq has em or not, he just wants his war.

But yeah, if they have 'em then they were sold to 'em by previous GOP administrations and it's possible his Dad may have been directly involved.°