What we now know

July 14, 2008

I just learned of the most recent development in the war that happened on July 5, 2008.

If you are serious about the Iraq war’s justice or injustice, then these three points should be the most important things informing your judgment - if you disagree that they are the most important things to inform your judgment, tell me why…

1) A now public 1,600 page report commissioned by the Pentagon and released in March 2008 entitled the Iraqi Perspectives Project confirms that Saddam funded, trained and sponsored several anti-American international terrorist groups - including Al Qaeda. It was based on an examination of 600,000 captured Baathist documents. Much of this knowledge was available to the public before the IPP was released, but it was a larger, more complete confirmation.

2) On July 5, 2008 a secret was revealed to the public that the Iraqi and US governments had known since 2003 but could not reveal for fear that Iran or terrorists would hijack it: that 550 metric tons of enriched uranium (an ingredient in WMDs) were found at Saddam's nuclear weapons complex at Tuwaitha where UN inspectors (during the Clinton era) had apparently been deceived.
Think about that – 550 tons is a lot of nuclear material!

A) We know Tuwaitha is where Saddam had a nuclear weapons program in the 80’s and 90’s.

B) from globalsecurity.org we read that:

“As of 2002 the only positively confirmed nuclear material left in Iraq is 1.8 tons of low-enriched uranium and several tons of natural and depleted uranium. The material is in a locked storage site at the Tuwaitha nuclear research facility near Baghdad.”

C) and yet 550 metric tons were found by the US during the 2003 invasion?

D) How had the UN inspectors missed 548.2 tons of nuclear material?!?! – Obviously Saddam deceived them and us - he was still seeking WMDs right up until we invaded in 2003.

3) We have now basically won the war against the terrorists and insurgents (why else would Prime Minister Al-Maliki use the term “defeated” two Saturdays ago in referring to “terrorism” in Iraq; and why did Al Qaeda recently say they are preparing for a “last stand” after we verified that they have been reduced from 12,000 to 1200 terrorists in Iraq during the last two years; and why is Iraq now declaring we can prepare a timeline for withdrawal?) and Iraq is a democracy in better economic, social and political shape than it has been in recorded history.

Now, I am heavily biased for the war and the Bush administration. So, I will be as fair as I can in offering the supporting evidence to my argument; let’s turn to those who are on the exact opposite side of the political spectrum about these topics.

Issued on the first Thursday of June, 2008, Senator Rockefeller and the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee wrote a report about what Bush knew before we invaded.
Needless to say, Senator Rockefeller and the Democrats of the SIC are not friends of the Bush administration and disagree vehemently with the war and Bush’s policies.

Fred Hiatt (reporter) read the report and makes this summary of it:

“On Iraq's nuclear weapons program? The president's statements "were generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates."

On biological weapons, production capability and those infamous mobile laboratories? The president's statements "were substantiated by intelligence information."

On chemical weapons, then? "Substantiated by intelligence information."

On weapons of mass destruction overall (a separate section of the intelligence committee report)? "Generally substantiated by intelligence information."

Delivery vehicles such as ballistic missiles? "Generally substantiated by available intelligence."

Unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to deliver WMDs? "Generally substantiated by intelligence information."

…statements regarding Iraq's support for terrorist groups other than al-Qaeda "were substantiated by intelligence information."

Statements that Iraq provided safe haven for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorists with ties to al-Qaeda "were substantiated by the intelligence assessments,"

and statements regarding Iraq's contacts with al-Qaeda "were substantiated by intelligence information.”

So...even those in the Congress of the United States who disagree vehemently with Bush and his policies are forced to conclude in a report that the reasons Bush outlined for us to go to war were “substantiated by intelligence information” before we invaded Iraq.

Now, nearly everyone who opposed the war up until recently regularly called for a unilateral troop withdrawal, despite the fact that Iraq itself never wanted us to do so.

But had we withdrawn, none of these things would necessarily be true:

1) Bush saved the world and the US from a regime that funded, trained and sponsored terrorists.

2) Bush saved the world and the US from a regime that was hiding several hundred tons of material used in WMDs (I believe only a few pounds of enriched uranium are necessary to destroy New York City).

3) Bush made it possible for Iraq to become a democracy with an exponentially increasing economy and more political freedom than ever in its history.

4) Bush ended a regime in Iraq that regularly committed the horrible tragedy of democide (murder by government of its people).

5) Bush ended a rogue nation that invaded two countries during the previous two decades out of sheer opportunism and wasn’t changing its attitude (for example, it attacked US embassies in 1999).

But thank goodness we didn’t withdraw, and Bush did accomplish all of that.

But would you prefer the world as it was, with an Iraq of oppressed and poor people, many of whom are murdered by their government which also invades neighboring countries about once a decade on whim and wastes its people’s money on international terrorist programs and WMDs?

Either way, the war is a resounding success, the good guys won and the bad guys lost (both the Baathists and the terrorists).