Pacific Views
You've been had. You've been took. You've been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok. - Malcolm X
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| Pacific ViewsYou've been had. You've been took. You've been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok. - Malcolm X |
Here's how Alaska senator Ted Stevens defended Dubya's decision to invade Iraq on the US Senate floor last Thursday:
"Our troops found 30 Iraqi planes buried in the sands of the al-Taqqadum airfield, west of Baghdad -- 30 planes!" he said in a speech on the Senate floor in which he defended the prewar intelligence and the decision to go to war. "If Saddam Hussein's troops buried one-tenth of their combat aircraft in the desert, who is to say there were no weapons of mass destruction similarly buried?"
Stevens is correct that several Iraqi planes were buried at the al-Taqaddum airbase in 2003. [Go here to see photos of US troops digging some up.] However, it's never been proven that any of the buried planes were still operational. Photos of the planes being unearthed show that no precautions had been taken to protect them from the sand, which couldn't have been good for the aircraft. Their burial probably speaks more to the desperation of the regime hiding them than to any real likelihood that the planes would fly again.
As to whether Saddam buried WMDs in somewhere in the desert, we'll just let the fact that no WMDs have been unearthed in almost three years speak to Sen. Stevens' charges. Besides, we're sure Saddam had a better plan for all those WMDs, anyway. From what we've heard, he had friendly space aliens carry away the WMDs in their flying saucers.
Perhaps we should give Sen. Stevens a call and let him know?
Via Anchorage Daily News.
Posted by Magpie at November 22, 2005 04:37 PM | US Politics | Technorati links |http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040522/news_1n22uranium.html
The 500 tons of uranium captured (see linked article) could product enough U235 (WMD grade yes I mean nuclear weapons grade uranium) for about 135 Hiroshima size bombs.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120137,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4997808/
Yes chemical weapon shells were found in Iraq.
Just because the Bush administartion does not brag about what it found does not mean that they found nothing.
Posted by: PC at November 22, 2005 05:17 PMNot to mention: The aircraft are not proscribed weapons under the U.N. Resolution--they were perfectly legal. Iraq probably burried them because the first think the U.S. did in Gulf War I was to bomb military sites and destroy as may aircraft as possible. You may remember that a bunch of Iraqi aircraft were flown to Iran for protection. Iran, however, refused to return them.
Sorry, pc, you are missing a few little facts.
uranium
Iraq's uranium stores were well known and properly declared prior to the U.S. invasion. (Iraq has inactive uranium mines, too.) The uranium stores were NOT a violation of UN resolutions. Unpurified uranium is not a big problem---it takes a pretty massive program to actually make the uranium useful for making bombs.
"Yes chemical weapon shells were found in Iraq.
Ummmmm...they were found in a pile of scrap metal. The UNMOVIC inspectors--the folks who found them and inspected them--stated that the casings were not a violation of any U.N. resolutions. Just scrap metal.
"Just because the Bush administartion does not brag about what it found does not mean that they found nothing."
Nope. You can be damn sure that Shrub would definitely showcase any violations of U.N. resolutions. He'd have 'em in a "King Tut" style traveling show faster than you can say, "What...another indictment?" But, the fact is, there we no substantive violations of the U.N. resolutions---UMOVIC and IAEA tried telling us so before the invasion, but the Administration felt they knew better.
Posted by: darryl at November 22, 2005 06:09 PMFor all we know those planes were buried in a sandstorm. Caveat emptor is the only sane position to take with these goniffs.
Posted by: Heimyankel at November 22, 2005 09:45 PMJust because the Bush administartion does not brag about what it found does not mean that they found nothing.
Gosh, that's a powerful argument!
Let's see if I've got it. If there's somebody who doesn't brag, and that somebody doesn't say that they didn't find something, then they probably did find it, and just didn't go bragging about it like prissy-pant liberals.
Good enough for me! I'm joining the Republican Party tomorrow.
Posted by: PhilK at November 22, 2005 10:31 PM