Memory Lane

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A draft report by the top U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq concludes no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction were found…

Quick, Sherman, to the Way-Back Machine! (Thanks to the CEIP) And bring the highlighter!

Vice President Cheney, VFW 103rd National Convention, August 26, 2002

"But we now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. …Many of us are convinced that Saddam will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon."
…
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."

Secretary Powell, FOX News Sunday Interview with Tony Snow, September 8, 2002

"There is no doubt that he has chemical weapons stocks… With respect to biological weapons, we are confident that he has some stocks of those weapons and he is probably continuing to try to develop more…"

Vice President Cheney, NBC Meet the Press with Tim Russert, September 8, 2002

"But we do know with absolute certainty that he is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon."

National Security Advisor Rice, The New Republic (June 30, 2003), September 8, 2002

"But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."

Let's just get clear on this. The American people, freedom-loving as we are, had been letting the Iraqis suffer for decades, just as we do populations across the globe. Cruel dictators aren't a sufficient cause for war. And the people didn't want to go to war because there "might be" weapons, or that Saddam was only "intent" on acquiring weapons. (Heck, if wanting to have such weapons the standard, we'd have to fight in many other places.)

It wasn't about "spreading freedom." And it wasn't about Saddam's intent to acquire weapons. No, the reason a huge number of people supported going to war in Iraq was that we were told there was NO DOUBT that there WERE weapons, and probably nuclear ones.

But there weren't. There just weren't. And they said they knew there were.

Why do people feel they can trust these guys?