Who is to blame for starting the Iraq war?

[Murky]

So you have no Evidence that

I'll let the facts speak for themselves.

 

[MobBoss]

Donald Rumsfeld meeting Saddam on 19 December – 20 December 1983.

You didnt answer the question about Rumsfield so basically you have no idea why he actually went. We basically sold a bunch of light helicopters to them and were actually tied (with Libya) for 9th on the list of military suppliers to Iraq.

 

[Atlas14]

It is quite simple, Saddam refusing UN searches started the war. That in itself was implying that he was hiding WMDs or something illegal on the global level.

 

[Mark1031]

It is quite simple, Saddam refusing UN searches started the war.

Please explain why the US had to order the UN inspectors out of Iraq before starting the bombing? see post 22 for historical record.

 

[Zamecnik]

Read your own link. Covert operations and weapon supplying involves more than the direct sale of weapons from one country to another. As in the American case with Iraq, it involved convincing/allowing banks to lend money to Saddam for the purchase of various sorts of weaponry (or dual-use type stuff), from Italy, the Eastern bloc, the US or otherwise. That list you use is misleading because it only references the actual weapons country of origin.

You didnt answer the question about Rumsfield so basically you have no idea why he actually went. We basically sold a bunch of light helicopters to them and were actually tied (with Libya) for 9th on the list of military suppliers to Iraq.

 

[Atlas14]

Please explain why the US had to order the UN inspectors out of Iraq before starting the bombing? see post 22 for historical record.

Because Saddam was already given years to comply, and playing Saddam's foolish games was not accomplishing anything other than buying Saddam time.

 

[Mark1031]

Because Saddam was already given years to comply, and playing Saddam's foolish games was not accomplishing anything other than buying Saddam time.

So basically when Saddam threw the inspectors out of his country in '98 a war of invasion killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people was a foregone conclusion. I wish we knew that during the 2000 election. That would have been a winning platform Saddam threw out the inspectors therefore if elected I will invade and occupy Iraq.

 

[Atlas14]

So basically when Saddam threw the inspectors out of his country in '98 a war of invasion killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people was a foregone conclusion. I wish we knew that during the 2000 election. That would have been a winning platform Saddam threw out the inspectors therefore if elected I will invade and occupy Iraq.

Sure, if you want to conveniently forget about the gassing of the Kurds, and his other history of violence.

 

[Zarn]

The Baath Party and its 'wonderful' leader are to blame. I don't care how you slice it. The man should not have been in power.

 

[FriendlyFire]

You didnt answer the question about Rumsfield so basically you have no idea why he actually went. We basically sold a bunch of light helicopters to them and were actually tied (with Libya) for 9th on the list of military suppliers to Iraq.

No I have NO IDEA please enlighten me.

Declassified documents show that Rumsfeld traveled to Baghdad at a time when Iraq was using chemical weapons on an "almost daily" basis in defiance of international conventions.

When Rumsfeld finally met with Hussein on Dec. 20, he told the Iraqi leader that Washington was ready for a resumption of full diplomatic relations, according to a State Department report of the conversation. Iraqi leaders later described themselves as "extremely pleased" with the Rumsfeld visit, which had "elevated U.S.-Iraqi relations to a new level."

In a September interview with CNN, Rumsfeld said he "cautioned" Hussein about the use of chemical weapons, a claim at odds with declassified State Department notes of his 90-minute meeting with the Iraqi leader.

As part of its opening to Baghdad, the Reagan administration removed Iraq from the State Department terrorism list in February 1982, despite heated objections from Congress. Without such a move, Teicher says, it would have been "impossible to take even the modest steps we were contemplating" to channel assistance to Baghdad. Iraq -- along with Syria, Libya and South Yemen -- was one of four original countries on the list, which was first drawn up in 1979.
Although U.S. arms manufacturers were not as deeply involved as German or British companies in selling weaponry to Iraq, the Reagan administration effectively turned a blind eye to the export of "dual use" items such as chemical precursors and steel tubes that can have military and civilian applications. According to several former officials, the State and Commerce departments promoted trade in such items as a way to boost U.S. exports and acquire political leverage over Hussein.

Although U.S. arms manufacturers were not as deeply involved as German or British companies in selling weaponry to Iraq, the Reagan administration effectively turned a blind eye to the export of "dual use" items such as chemical precursors and steel tubes that can have military and civilian applications. According to several former officials, the State and Commerce departments promoted trade in such items as a way to boost U.S. exports and acquire political leverage over Hussein.

A 1994 investigation by the Senate Banking Committee turned up dozens of biological agents shipped to Iraq during the mid-'80s under license from the Commerce Department, including various strains of anthrax, subsequently identified by the Pentagon as a key component of the Iraqi biological warfare program. The Commerce Department also approved the export of insecticides to Iraq, despite widespread suspicions that they were being used for chemical warfare.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A52241-2002Dec29&notFound=true

 

[Mark1031]

Sure, if you want to conveniently forget about the gassing of the Kurds, and his other history of violence.

Kurds were in 1988 15 years before the invasion. I don't know why I waste my breath but really if that was the reason then why wait 15 yrs. In fact if we would have just waited another 15 years then Saddam would have probably died of old age and we wouldn't have to have taken half a million people with him. Saddam was a bad guy and the world is full of bad guys. You are just desparately groping for a justification of this disasterous mess we created.

Let's invade Spain for what they did to the Aztecs .

 

[Atlas14]

Kurds were in 1988 15 years before the invasion. I don't know why I waste my breath but really if that was the reason then why wait 15 yrs. In fact if we would have just waited another 15 years then Saddam would have probably died of old age and we wouldn't have to have taken half a million people with him. Saddam was a bad guy and the world is full of bad guys. You are just desparately groping for a justification of this disasterous mess we created.

Let's invade Spain for what they did to the Aztecs .

We did not invade them because Saddam had gassed the Kurds, but it showed Saddam's non-hesitation of brutality and if he had WMDs in his hands, what would stop him from playing around with those? It would be ridiculous if we invaded Iraq solely for somethign that happened in 1988, but history cannot be ignored when it is attributable to the same dictator.

 

[skadistic]

I'll let the facts speak for themselves.

What facts? Let them speak by posting the facts and how exactly they prove that

It's evident that George W. Bush and his buddies misled us unto this war for oil and corporate profits

 

[MobBoss]

No I have NO IDEA please enlighten me.

A 1994 investigation by the Senate Banking Committee turned up dozens of biological agents shipped to Iraq during the mid-'80s under license from the Commerce Department, including various strains of anthrax, subsequently identified by the Pentagon as a key component of the Iraqi biological warfare program. The Commerce Department also approved the export of insecticides to Iraq, despite widespread suspicions that they were being used for chemical warfare.

Please...you will call less than a few ounces of commercial grade anthrax used in sheep vaccinations and insecticides for crops as WMD; and yet you wont call the 500+ shells/rockets filled with sarin and mustard gas NOT WMD?

Oh...my....god.

Talk about your extreme double standards.

 

[sonorakitch]

I think it is entirely France's fault. If the Germans would have won WWII we wouldn't have invaded Iraq.

~Chris

 

[Quasar1011]

Saddam Hussein started it on August 1, 1990.

 

[Perfection]

I blame Rummy, he was the guy who flubbed up the invasion plans and made us believe it would work when it did not.

 

[Field_Marshal]

If the french would have helped we could have made it alot easier. Its frances fault.

 

[scipian]

Horrible poll. It doesn't include the international community, fundamentalist terrorists, or Sadaam. Just because you don't believe something is correct doesn't mean you should exclude it from the option box if you actually care about getting real results.

BTW-I'm split between the ones I mentioned. Sadaam was an idiot, ignored demands from the UN to see if he had the weapons, and, based on information gathered from international intelligence services, acted like he was trying to get such weapons. And the international community could be blamed both for not being hard enough or for being a fellow ally of the US (we did have a large number of allied groups). And, of course, terrorists. There was reason to believe (again, based on foreign intelligence services) that the terrorists were being helped by many Muslim nations and that Iraq was one of their recruiting, financing bases.

 

[Revolutionary]

I think it is entirely France's fault. If the Germans would have won WWII we wouldn't have invaded Iraq.

~Chris

I blame Canada