woodswun@tepidmail.com (Woodswun) wrote:

There was no "developing WMD crisis" in Iraq under
Clinton - there was a question mark, nothing more.

Just because you don't remember it accurately doesn't mean it didn't
happen. Whether you like it or not, President Clinton termed the
situation in Iraq a "crisis" on February 17, 1998:

[quote] "Those who have questioned the United States in this moment, I
would argue, are living only in the moment. They have neither
remembered the past, nor imagined the future. So, first, let's just
take a step back and consider why meeting the threat posed by Saddam
Hussein is important to our security in the new era we are entering."

"I want the American people to understand, first, the past: How did
this crisis come about. And I want them to understand what we must do
to protect the national interest and, indeed, the interest of all
freedom-loving people in the world."

"Now, instead of playing by the very rules he agreed to at the end of
the Gulf War, Saddam has spent the better part of the past decade
trying to cheat on this solemn commitment. Consider just some of the
facts. Iraq repeatedly made false declarations about the weapons that
it had left in its possession after the Gulf War. When UNSCOM would
then uncover evidence that gave lie to those declarations, Iraq would
simply amend the reports. For example, Iraq revised its nuclear
declarations four times within just 14 months, and it has submitted
six different biological warfare declarations, each of which has been
rejected by UNSCOM."

"In 1995, Hussein Kamel, Saddam's son-in-law and the chief organizer
of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, defected to Jordan. He
revealed that Iraq was continuing to conceal weapons and missiles and
the capacity to build many more. Then, and only then, did Iraq admit
to developing numbers of weapons in significant quantities, and weapon
stocks. Previously it had vehemently denied the very thing it just
simply admitted once Saddam Hussein's son-in-law defected to Jordan
and told the truth."

"Next, throughout this entire process, Iraqi agents have undermined
and undercut UNSCOM. They've harassed the inspectors, lied to them,
disabled monitoring cameras, literally spirited evidence out of the
back doors of suspect facilities as inspectors walked through the
front door -- and our people were there observing it and have the
pictures to prove it."

"What if he fails to comply and we fail to act, or we take some
ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to
develop this program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to
press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the
solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the
international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that
he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating
destruction. And some day, some way, I guarantee you, he'll use the
arsenal."

"Let me be clear: A military operation cannot destroy all the weapons
of mass destruction capacity. But it can, and will, leave him
significantly worse off than he is now in terms of the ability to
threaten the world with these weapons, or to attack his neighbors. And
he will know that the international community continues to have the
will to act if and when he threatens again."

"Following any strike, we will carefully monitor Iraq's activities
with all the means at our disposal. If he seeks to rebuild his weapons
of mass destruction we will be prepared to strike him again. The
economic sanctions will remain in place until Saddam complies fully
with all U.N. resolutions."

"Now, let me say to all of you here, as all of you know, the
weightiest decision any President ever has to make is to send our
troops into harm's way. And force can never be the first answer. But
sometimes it's the only answer."

"Let there be no doubt, we are prepared to act. But Saddam Hussein
could end this crisis tomorrow, simply by letting the weapons
inspectors complete their mission. He made a solemn commitment to the
international community to do that and to give up his weapons of mass
destruction a long time ago, now. One way or the other, we are
determined to see that he makes good on his own promise."

"In this century we learned through harsh experience that the only
answer to aggression and illegal behavior is firmness, determination,
and, when necessary, action."

"And we still have, God willing, a chance to find a diplomatic
resolution to this, and if not, God willing, the chance to do the
right thing for our children and grandchildren." [end quote]

The complete transcript is here:
http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1998/02/17/98021704_tpo.html

Okay, I read it - he was saying that the inspections program was
working and would be sufficient to contain Saddam Hussein.

He was *not* claiming that Hussein was constructing

weapons (a "program" can be a couple of scientists in a think tank with
no facilities except a computer, a couple of pads of paper, and a couple
of pencils), nor did he claim that Iraq had nuclear weapon capabilities
(or even that they were close to achieving that), nor was he claiming
that there was an imminent threat from Iraq.

In short, nothing whatsoever like what Bush claimed was going on,
based on the exact same types of intelligence reports.