Wednesday, February 17, 2016

The Great WMD Lie

For a decade Democrats..and Donald Trump have had a steady mantra criticizing former President George W. Bush for going into Iraq when they had no WMDs.  This issue which divided the nation for 3 consecutive election cycles ignored reports as early as 2006 that in fact stockpiles of chemical weapons had been located in Iraq.  Systems dating to the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Between 2004 and 2011 there were at least six instances of American or American trained Iraqi forces wounded by chemical weapons.  Coalition forces repeatedly encountered such weapons.  This was reported by the New York Times in October of 2014. 

American forces found as many as 5,000 chemical warheads, shells and bombs.  What they did not find was an active production program.  Iraq certainly held stockpiles of weapons that it had failed to destroy as required by the 1991 Cease Fire ending Desert Storm. 

Since the rise of ISIS there have been reports that ISIS forces have captured chemical weapons storage facilities.  This was stated as early as the summer of 2014.  So ISIS captured weapons that didn't exist in a place that didn't have them to understand the left..and Mr. Trump's narrative.  The implications of course have come true.  The Director of National Intelligence James Clapper as well as other officials this week have stated that ISIS has used chemical weapons against Kurdish fighters. 

Facts mean things.  When someone tells you "there were no WMDs"..they are wrong.  We cannot afford to be wrong.

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