Say Anything Blog

It’s also stupid to think Saddam masterminded 9/11:

One of the most striking poll findings is the number of people who continue to think Saddam Hussein was behind the Sept. 11 attacks. Depending on how it is asked, more than a third of Americans say Saddam Hussein was personally involved in those attacks.

Or that Saddam didn’t let the UN Weapons Inspectors in before Bush invaded:

If Romney wants to make the case that the invasion was wise, fine, let’s hear his case. But in discussing weapons inspectors, his version of events isn’t just wrong; it’s fantasy.

Fine way to muddy a non-debate, Will.

If anybody thinks that Saddam Hussein was behing 9/11 then they’re as stupid at those who think George Bush was. I wonder who the NYT interviewed for that opinion, the guy they always talk to after the tornado with the torn t-shirt and the “who farted?” hat?

And as far as those weapons inspector go...saffam let them in, then kept them on a very short leash after that, only allowing them to see what had been scheduled far in advance and stopping them at the gates of some facilities.

You guys just don’t quit, do you?

Election ‘08 - We Are So Screwed

This guy will never be an employer because he’s too stupid.

Will:

Or that Saddam didn’t let the UN Weapons Inspectors in before Bush invaded:

Yeah, absolutely amazing.

We all know that Iraq was a democratic utopia with complete and open access to all information before the invasion!  And Saddam never even once kicked the inspectors out.  Or prevented them access to certain facilities.  Or limited who they could interview, and under what circumstances. Or tampered with UN seals on inspected facilities. (and so on.)

Exactly who was Will trying to prove stupid here?

ews48 - nice insult. You forgot to include substance.

Romney didn’t say anything about the level of cooperation, he just flat-out said they were not allowed in.  And he was flat-out wrong.

Carrick, who are you trying to prove stupid?  Saddam didn’t kick the inspectors out.  They left because they had to get out of the way of Bush’s invasion.

Saddam didn’t kick the inspectors out.  They left because they had to get out of the way of Bush’s invasion.

Excuse me, Miss, your BDS is showing.

Election ‘08 - We Are So Screwed

Pilgrim -

BDS? WTF? Surely, you are aware the the inspectors left because Bush’s impending invasion made it untenable for them to stay.

You didn’t sleep through 2003 did you?

How bout this?

KUWAIT CITY: With war imminent, United Nations weapons inspectors withdrew from Iraq on Tuesday only hours after President George W. Bush warned that all foreign nationals should leave the country for their own safety.

The inspectors boarded a United Nations Boeing jet at Baghdad’s Saddam International Airport, bringing an abrupt end to their four-month mission to oversee the disarmament of Iraq

Only the left can look at Saddam’s Iraq, Saddam’s pissing around for 13 years, Saddam’s runaround with the UN “inspectors” - and then take the side of Saddam.

You know how you can tell that Bush isn’t a dictator? Because people like Will and WOOF aren’t falling over themselves to defend him. They never met a dictator that they didn’t like.

Meanwhile, the topic of this post is the stupidity of 9/11 “Truthers”. How far we’ve wandered because of those with an inability to focus.

Woof & Will, that round of inspectors was, what, the 13th or 14th teams to go in and “inspect?” Seriously, you can pick and choose the facts that you want to bolster your fallacies, but you can’t revise the dozen-plus years that Saddam obfuscated and hid his WMDs.  If you want to claim that Saddam never had WMDs, then that’s another story, but it will be as valid as your first (untrue) one.

Semantically twist it all you want, but not allowing the inspectors into the sites where they suspect WMDs are being manufactured or stored, but letting them into the sanitized sites is not, contrary to your weak protestations, “giving the inspectors access.” You fellows will contort anything to make yourselves feel “right.” You ain’t.  Get over it.

Will:

Saddam didn’t kick the inspectors out.  They left because they had to get out of the way of Bush’s invasion.

Er… The invasion was in 1998?

Gee, time sure flies.

ews, Neil is an employer. He is sole owner of 2 different companies which employ 130 people between them. He is also on the boards of several other companies and charitable foundations. Getting a clue, its whats for dinner.

Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

And as for the BDS twins, inspectors had filed multiple protests concerning Saddam’s repeated interference in the inspection regime, and repeatedly told their UN superiors that sites they had inspected had been compromised, seals violated, equipment and materials moved in direct contravention of the multiple UN issued mandates that Iraq open to inspection, dismantling and destruction all sites and stockpiles of equipment, materials, chemicals of a dual use/WMD nature, and documentation to full access of the UN Weapons Inspection Teams.

Spin and lie, you are rather entertaining.

Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

In wingnut world, if you recite simple facts, you are accused of lying and “siding with Saddam”.

Here are the simple facts:

Contrary to Romney’s statements, Saddam DID let the inspectors back in, on 11/27/02 (see Chronology here).

Contrary to Pilgrim’s statements, the inspectors left in March ‘03, because of Bush’s invasion, not because of anything Saddam did.  See WOOF’s citation above.

2Hotel9 makes a lot of unsubstaniated claims about bad cooperation of the Iraqi regime.  He’s probably talking about things that happened in the 1990’s, which would make them irrelevent to the 2002-2003 UNMOVIC inspection program and Bush’s decision to invade in March ‘03.

I’m not saying Saddam’s cooperation with UNMOVIC in 2002-2003 was perfect, but it was good enough for the inspectors to do their job.  Here’s what the exectutive chairman of UNMOVIC had to say in the days leading up to Bush’s invasion:

Inspections in Iraq resumed on 27 November 2002.  In matters relating to process, notably prompt access to sites, we have faced relatively few difficulties and certainly much less than those that were faced by UNSCOM in the period 1991 to 1998.

This is not to say that the operation of inspections is free from frictions, but at this juncture we are able to perform professional no-notice inspections all over Iraq and to increase aerial surveillance.

American U-2 and French Mirage surveillance aircraft already give us valuable imagery, supplementing satellite pictures and we would expect soon to be able to add night vision capability through an aircraft offered to us by the Russian Federation.  We also expect to add low-level, close area surveillance through drones provided by Germany.  We are grateful not only to the countries, which place these valuable tools at our disposal, but also to the States, most recently Cyprus, which has agreed to the stationing of aircraft on their territory.

How much time would it take to resolve the key remaining disarmament tasks?  ...  It would not take years, nor weeks, but months.

The truth of the matter is that the inspectors were still ramping up to full effectiveness when Bush cut them off.  They were rapidly destroying the credibility of Bush’s WMD claims.  The only way for Bush to get the war he so badly wanted was to invade immediately, before inspectors could make any more progress.

Will:

He’s probably talking about things that happened in the 1990’s, which would make them irrelevent to the 2002-2003 UNMOVIC inspection program and Bush’s decision to invade in March ‘03.

Why exactly are they irrelevant?  It’s part of a continuing pattern. 

I suppose you can call almost executing one of the chief inspectors as a spy as “less than perfect cooperation”, but hey .. that was years ago.  Why’s it relevant now?

LOL.

In any case, Saddam’s level of cooperation was still did not meet the requirements of the Security Council mandate.  See for example the tampered UN inspection seals, limiting or preventing assess to key witnesses, limiting assess to key sites and so forth.

How much time would it take to resolve the key remaining disarmament tasks?  ...  It would not take years, nor weeks, but months.

In a liberal fantasy world maybe.  With Iraq continuing to be obstructionistic and minimally cooperative, it was never going to happen.

Whether that is important is the $20 question.  That depends on your threat assessment of what Saddam had left. I was never sold that he had the threat capability that was claimed.  Obviously many others thought otherwise.  The decision’s obviously been made, so it’s just a historical trivia question now.

In any case, Will is trying to polishing a turd.  Maybe the circumstances didn’t warrant an invasion, but to try and pretend that we were near some resolution of the question of Saddam’s threat level is little more than a hapless attempt at rewriting history.  It leaves off, for example, future capability and the only sure fired way to remove that is to remove the leader who is so interested in it.

You want substantiation? Go to the UN, it is all documented there, leftard.

Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

In a liberal fantasy world maybe.  With Iraq continuing to be obstructionistic and minimally cooperative, it was never going to happen.

Carrick, it’s your word against the people who were actually there and know what they’re talking about.  I’ll trust the latter.

The main point is that the US is full of crackpots who think Saddam was behind 9/11 or that UN inspections were not in progress when Bush invaded and those folks at least as numerous as the 9/11 truthers.

It doesn’t matter if the weapons inspectors were there or not: Saddam had a dozen years to play cat and mouse games with weapons inspectors and with his whole agreement with the UN. Instead, Saddam starts finding Jesus when he realizes bombs may start raining down on his head. Big deal. The minute he felt the heat was being turned down he would have been back to his same old BS with inspections, and don’t kid yourself any differently.

If you want a little bit of history, the BBC has broken down a nice timeline:

""That’s the problem with you lefties, you’re not willing to get your hands dirty. I’d suggest you roll up your sleeves.”

-Jack Bauer