True to form, while Clinton was president the Democrats and other Fellow Travelers
claimed that Iraq had WMDs and were beating the war drums.
After Bush was elected their tune changed, even though the evidence available at the time hadn't. Because Bush was president they miraculously lost their faith in the presence of WMDs in Iraq and the need for war, and started
blaming Bush: Nancy Pelosi, who in December of 1998,said on her congressional website:
“Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process.”
And who then said in May of 2004:
“I believe that the president’s leadership in the actions taken in Iraq demonstrate an incompetence in terms of knowledge, judgment and experience in making the decisions that would have been necessary to truly accomplish the mission without the deaths to our troops and the cost to our taxpayers...”
If I were Mr. Reid, Ms. Pelosi and the entire compliment of Progressives and anti-war Democrats who cheered in politically opportunistic victory when no “stockpiles” of WMD were found in Iraq, the exact group who routinely ignored those who sounded the alarm about the transfer of WMD from Iraq to Syria,
Iraq's own report of its
sources for its WMD program stated that wittingly or unwittingly
the equipment was either sold or made by more than 30 German companies, 10 American companies, 11 British companies and a handful of Swiss, Japanese, Italian, French, Swedish and Brazilian firms. It says more than 30 countries supplied its nuclear program.
So American companies were only 20% of the total and America was only 1 of 30 countries. Did America and its companies supply the lion's share? If so, how can you prove it without manifests?
An Iraqi general who defected stated that
53 plane loads of WMDs, supplies and equipment were flown out of Iraq to Syria because Saddam believed that the US would attack soon, which we did.
So many countries and political groups have a horse in this race it may be next to impossible to learn the exact truth. However, several facts are well known:
Chemical weapon attacksMain article: Iraqi chemical weapons program
Location Weapon Used Date Casualties
Haij Umran Mustard August 1983 fewer than 100 Iranian/Kurdish
Panjwin Mustard October–November 1983 3,001 Iranian/Kurdish
Majnoon Island Mustard February–March 1984 2,500 Iranians
al-Basrah Tabun March 1984 50-100 Iranians
Hawizah Marsh Mustard & Tabun March 1985 3,000 Iranians
al-Faw Mustard & Tabun February 1986 8,000 to 10,000 Iranians
Um ar-Rasas Mustard December 1986 1,000s Iranians
al-Basrah Mustard & Tabun April 1987 5,000 Iranians
Sumar/Mehran Mustard & nerve agent October 1987 3,000 Iranians
Halabjah Mustard & nerve agent March 1988 7,000s Kurdish/Iranian
al-Faw Mustard & nerve agent April 1988 1,000s Iranians
Fish Lake Mustard & nerve agent May 1988 100s or 1,000s Iranians
Majnoon Islands Mustard & nerve agent June 1988 100s or 1,000s Iranians
South-central border Mustard & nerve agent July 1988 100s or 1,000s Iranians
an-Najaf -
Karbala area Nerve agent & CS March 1991 Unknown
That chemical WMD attacks essentially ceased in 1988 because Iraq started working on biological WMDs. Most of that was shipped to Syria before the US attacked.
