Bush addresses the world- Pending War

[GrayMouser]

Originally posted by Lief Erikson
Any thoughts from the anti-war protesters on all the gas masks and chemical weapon antidotes that have been found in Iraq? Or the ricine production documents? Does anyone still think that we were dead wrong about the WMDs Iraq is stated to have? And the documents and personell links to Al'Qaeda?

And if you do think these aren't all lies, do you not think that their having WMDs justifies attack?

Most anti-war people acknowledged that Saddam had WMD (biological and chemical, anyway) ; they simply argued that

a) weapons inspectors would find them (wrong, I think)

b) Saddam wouldn't have a chance to use them - this is more problematic; he certainly wouldn't have used them against his neighbors, but he might have used them on his own people(again) to protect himself against an uprising. And he certainly would have been happy to indulge in a little nuclear blackmail, given the chance - of course that means getting a nuke AND a delivery system.

As for the ricin, documents, and links to Al'Qaeda- as far as I can tell, all these are coming from the enclave in North- Eastern Iaq controlled by the Al-Ansar group. This area is surrounded on three sides by Kurdish-controlled terrritory, and is contiguous with Iran. In short, it's been out of Saddam's control for years.

It seems to me that the Iranians, in spite of their denials, have allowed Al- Qaida militants to pass through Iran, but are too wary to allow them to stay- that nice little patch of territory nominally part of Iraq makes a convenient location.

Earlier reports said that many of the Al-Ansar fighters slipped back over the border to Iran, and the Iranians allowed them to move back and forth freely.

(I'm sure nobody's seriously suggesting that the Iranians are helping Saddam develop chemical or biological weapons.)

So the smoking gun of either WMD or Saddam/bin Laden connections has yet to be found. I'm sure that WMD will be, Al-Qaida links I doubt very much.