Iraq and WMD, Wrong and Right

The report is out. The stockpiles did not exist. The weapons found and used against the Coalition are leftovers from before Gulf War I. I admit it. I was wrong.

I'm hardly alone. All of the West's intelligence agencies were wrong, too. The United Nations was wrong. Uday, Saddam's son, was wrong.

The report explains why Saddam did what he did, misled and deceived the United Nations and the world for over a decade. But when it came right down to it, why didn't he confess that he had destroyed the weapons? I'm certain the United Nations would have overlooked all of the other deceits and violations, set them aside for further negotiations, had he just proved the destruction of his WMD stocks. Saddam would still be in power had he chosen to come clean, even just a little, before the Coalition moved.

Was he so fixated upon Iran as an enemy that he could not bring himself to appear disarmed? Did he so discount the West, the United Nations and the Coalition as enemies? From my initial read of the report, Saddam failed to understand the gathering storm out of Washington. He was still fighting the Iran - Iraq War. He saw Gulf War I as a victory for himself, not the loss we all thought it was.

It goes back to my contention that the Tikrit Thugocracy was a criminal gang, not a ruling and governing group. Saddam saw Iran's mullahs as a rival gang. They were fighting over the same turf. We, the U.N. and the United States, were inconsequential to him precisely because we did not want his turf. Gulf I was a victory for him because he remained in power. Capone was concerned with Elliott Ness but it wasn't G-Men he slaughtered on St. Valentine's Day.

Our greatest intelligence failure was our failure to understand just how much the government of Iraq was about one man and his gangsters. Saddam was somewhat unique among dictators in many respects, so much so that it may be pathological on his part.

A clearer understanding of Saddam, his culture, and an open mind when it came to interpretation of his public and private statements could have produced a different picture of Iraq and of its ruling thugocracy. It may be that, like Hitler, he actually meant what he said on far more occasions than we thought. Our assumptions that he was lying or playing to the crowds may have assigned him far more complex motives than he actually had.

From his perspective: I'm in power. I want to stay in power. Who threatens my staying in power? The United States and the United Nations had demonstrated that they were no threat to his remaining in power. Iran, however, was a threat.

Let's not discount the report based on the lack of WMD stockpiles. It documents clearly that Saddam continued to lie and cheat and never intended to tell the United Nations the truth. He maintained a variety of programs that were not permitted. His secret agencies experimented with WMD type substances on human subjects in hidden labs. He increased his abilities to deliver WMD. He actively planned and built dual-use systems that could be converted to WMD production. He used the Oil for Food program as his own personal bankroll, subverting foreign companies and governments to his purposes with astonishingly massive bribes. He starved and sickened the Iraqi people by diverting aid funds to weapons programs and to programs that enriched himself and his thugs.

Saddam had no intention of ever voluntarily complying with the United Nations. Over the twelve years that he dealt with the U.N. he systematically lied, cheated and stole. He did not have clean hands when it came to the WMD issue.

So, how could we have known that he had no stocks of WMD? His thugs obstructed every attempt by the United Nations to determine the truth. He concealed from the world his destruction of his stockpiles. Even his own son, Uday, thought that he had stocks as he called for WMD supplies during the Liberation. Where were the signs that Saddam would do exactly what we wanted but refuse to disclose these facts, and continue to deceive us with respect to these facts? How could the Bush Administration, or any other government, have known that there were no stockpiles, given Saddam's refusal to demonstrate that fact?

I continue to believe that the Liberation of Iraq was the right thing to do, the moral thing to do. Saddam had clearly violated the ceasefire. Dr. Blix's United Nations Group had found violations prior to being withdrawn. Dr. Kay's report, and the final report on WMD's shows a clear and persistant pattern of evading the United Nations and violating the seventeen resolutions involved. Weapons systems and delivery systems that were not permitted were developed. A secret system of labs conducted impermissible experiments, and conducted experiments with WMD-type substances on human subjects. Companies and members of national and international governments were bribed into cooperating with a vast system of smuggling arms and technology into Iraq that was not permitted. All during these twelve year, Saddam and his thugs continued to kill the people of Iraq at will. The syphoning of funds from aid programs sickened and starved Iraqis, while Saddam and his thugs grew wealthy beyond imagination. Oh, yes, it was the right thing to do, the Liberation of Iraq. Regardless of WMD stockpiles.