Justification for war in Iraq and WMD
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President George W. Bush: &quot;We all thought there was weapons there, Robin. My opponent thought there was weapons there. That&#39;s why he called him a grave threat.
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&quot;the crisis is now,&quot; President Bush said recently -- is the domestic version of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Could it be that I am hearing the same sense of false urgency?
745235
Some wars end in peace treaties or surrender ceremonies. The Iraq war appears destined to end in a noxious mixture of metaphors.
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Suspicions have been proven correct. Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) when the US and allies invaded in March 2003, nor did it have the capability to produce WMDs
281127
That's not quite correct. We went to war based on our need to stand behind our leadership on the unanimous passage by the UN Security Council of Resolution 1441, which declared that Saddam must disarm and come ...
493507
Yesterday, former top US central banker Alan Greenspan, a very respected public official, said: "I'm saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows -- the Iraq war is largely about oil." Dale Bumpers, former US Senator from Arkansas, defended President Bill Clinton when he was on trial. He said, memorably: "H.L. Mencken said one time, 'When you hear somebody say, This is not about money, it's about money.' And when you hear somebody say, 'This is not about sex,' it's about sex." Bumpers might say today: When you hear somebody say the war in Iraq is not about oil, it's about oil. And Greenspan was absolutely right. Everyone knows that so many US trops and so much US money would not be deployed in Iraq if it weren't in the middle of the oil reserves of the world and if Iraq itself didn't have so much oil. It's ridiculous to argue otherwise. Yet, this admission is causing a major recalc in US political discourse. Had Greenspan said something so obviously true in 2003 or 2004, we might have avoided this national catastrophe. And I think this says more about us, and our desire to be misled, to have our lives simplified, to delegate our intellectual existence. Yes, our troops are there because of the oil. Don't doubt it. Postscript: The Bumpers speech is worth watching again, for its eloquence and simplicity. It wasn't so long ago that we rose to this level.
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QUESTION: Mr. President, American forces are gearing up for what appears to be a major offensive in Fallujah over the next several days. I'm wondering if you could tell us what the objective is, what the stakes are there for the United States, for the Iraqi people, and the Iraqi elections coming up in January?
221109
WASHINGTON - Undercutting the Bush's administration's rationale for invading Iraq, the final report of the chief U.S. arms inspector concludes that Saddam Hussein did not vigorously pursue a program to develop weapons of mass destruction after international inspectors left Baghdad in 1998, according to lawmakers and others briefed on the report...
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Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. While he certainly harbored ambitions to get them, the Iraqi programs to build them had decayed to become mere wisps of what they once were.
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Why did the President risk undermining the historical arguments about Iraq with the specter of another war?
637334
A look at the positions of President Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry on Iraq:
604059
The specter of the war in Iraq -- a war the Bush administration denied it was planning, supported by evidence that turned out to be false -- looms large over administration policy toward Iran.
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When it comes to the Iraq war, apparently there is more than one right answer.
482041
WASHINGTON - The White House staunchly defended its Iraq policy Tuesday as new questions emerged about President Bush's prewar decisions and postwar planning. An impending weapons report undercut the administration's main rationale for the war, and the former head of the American occupation said the United States had too few troops in Iraq after the invasion...
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In a debate rematch, President Bush defended his invasion of Iraq and said &quot;I wasn&#39;t happy when we found there weren&#39;t weapons&quot; that prompted his administration to go to war against Saddam Hussein.
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Tony Blair says the Iraq war was legally justified even if Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction.
650340
The White House staunchly defended its Iraq policy Tuesday as new questions emerged about President Bush's prewar decisions and postwar planning: An impending weapons report undercut the administration's main rationale for the war, and the former head of the American occupation said the United States had too few troops in Iraq after the invasion.