War On Terror: As the regime of Bashar Assad disintegrates, the security of his chemical arsenal is in jeopardy. The No. 2 general in Saddam Hussein's air force says they were the WMDs we didn't find in Iraq.
King Abdullah of neighboring Jordan warned that a disintegrating Syria on the verge of civil war puts Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons at risk of falling into the hands of al-Qaida.
"One of the worst-case scenarios as we are obviously trying to look for a political solution would be if some of those chemical stockpiles were to fall into unfriendly hands," he said.
The irony here is that the chemical weapons stockpile of Syrian thug Assad may in large part be the legacy of weapons moved from Hussein's Iraq into Syria before Operation Iraqi Freedom.
If so, this may be the reason not much was found in the way of WMD by victorious U.S. forces in 2003.
In 2006, former Iraqi general Georges Sada, second in command of the Iraqi Air Force who served under Saddam Hussein before he defected, wrote a comprehensive book, "Saddam's Secrets."
It details how the Iraqi Revolutionary Guard moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria in advance of the U.S.-led action to eliminate Hussein's WMD threat.
As Sada told the New York Sun, two Iraqi Airways Boeings were converted to cargo planes by removing the seats, and special Republican Guard units loaded the planes with chemical weapons materials.
There were 56 flights disguised as a relief effort after a 2002 Syrian dam collapse.
There were also truck convoys into Syria. Sada's comments came more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."
Both Israeli and U.S. intelligence observed large truck convoys leaving Iraq and entering Syria in the weeks and months before Operation Iraqi Freedom, John Shaw, former deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, told a private conference of former weapons inspectors and intelligence experts held in Arlington, Va., in 2006.
Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/071912-618875-syria-chemic...
Comment
Comment by KathleenSt on December 7, 2012 at 3:17am Now, wait a minute.
We were told Dubya lied, no WMD.
Now he is right.
So, Syria is his fault now??
Comment by Billy Bowlegs on December 6, 2012 at 11:34am So, George B. Jr. is exhonorated for IRAQ War.
Along with Saddam, UDAY, QSAY, and PUSAY,(the human HMDs of Iraq), there are real WMDs found, identified, worried about.
Where are all the liberal bs'ers that said there were none on this subject.
And of all candidates to find HMDs was Billy Bob Clinton, he was the only eligible American to send after PUSAY and he would nto go. He sent Hillary later, now look what has happened.
Dead men in Benghazi.
Comment by Janet Miller on December 6, 2012 at 10:56am Steve,
I appreciate your words and your point of view. You are so right. The entire world has turned into Bush's worst critic, most regretably, the Republicans. With friends like that.... He was not perfect, a mere man, as it were, and as such had to deal with imperfection, his own and that of the world around him. And in my estimation, he was far superior to the one who preceded him, in every regard. He may have erred in judgement at times, but I am steadfast in my belief that he always acted in what he believed to be the best interest of our country. (btw, I wear my "Miss Me Yet?" t-shirt to the grocery store now and then. Haven't gotten any reaction so far). I'm thinking maybe most of them dont even remember him. I'm doing my best to remedy that.
Comment by Steve Wilson on December 6, 2012 at 6:44am Janet -
I am with you on this subject. As time goes by, I think people forget the magnitude of what GW Bush faced. Our country, under eight years of Clinton, had let terrorists skate all over the planet. Bin Laden, the Taliban, and so many other organizations big and small exploded during the Clinton Frat Party years in the Whitehouse. Then came 9/11.
Until that day, our country kept seeing and hearing the alarm clock go off, as we saw warning after warning that at some point, we were going to get hit, and hit hard. But we kept hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep as we have always tended to do. But on 9/11, we HAD to wake up. We had no choice. No president in history had ever faced a direct attack on our private citizens like Bush had (Hell, even obama has bragged that no terrorist attacks have occurred under his watch - as he refuses to label the Ft. Hood Massacre what it was).
Bush was thrust into a horrible situation no one would want to face. He led us into a war we did not start but had to answer to. This war is different than all other wars our country has ever been involved in. Our enemy is not a rogue nation, or a single dictator, or a country we can look up on a map. Our enemy is a warped, sadistic ideology shrouded under the term "religion." They don't occupy a region we can bomb into oblivion. They occupy the world. They are a deadly cancer that has spread everywhere. In every sense of the phrase, this war that Islam started long ago IS World War Three.
All that said, for the most part, I can't argue with how Bush handled it. I did not agree with two things he did. The first was standing on an aircraft carrier delivering a speech that said the war is won - right after Saddam's regime fell. When he did that, many Americans took that as, "Time to drink ourselves back to sleep." In fact, that was just one small battle victory in this world war.
The second was pandering to nations - such as Syria, such as France, such as Saudia Arabia. Although I understand all the implications of it (like oil - but that is a whole other debate), I always thought Bush tried too hard NOT to rile all the nations who were not sure we should go to war, and tried too hard to appease the astounding number of countries with special interests, not to mention special interest groups.
I will never forget sitting in a conference room with about 20 coworkers silently watching 9/11 unfold, live on TV. As we sat there, one of my old Lieutentants stood up and began to walk out. As he did, he said, "If we nuke Afghanistan and Iraq right now, not a single country will say s*** to us." He may have been right, we will never know. I tell that story because I always thought Bush spent way too much time trying to convince the rest of the world that we needed to go into Iraq because they had WMD. I would have preferred we snow plow that country into oblivion, then explain to everyone else later - "This is why we did it." In the process we would have saved thousands of American casualties, not to mention send a clear message - "You screw with our country on our soil, you are going to regret it."
Bush has become everyones whipping boy. His fellow republicans blame him for everything we face now just as much as our communist president does. I never thought he was perfect, but I have always felt he was sincere in his efforts to do the best job in an impossible situation. It is hard to fight WWIII when most of the world refuses to acknowledge they have a war on their doorstep.
On a final note, I am sure you have all seen the picture of Bush with the quote, "Do ya miss me yet?" Well???
Comment by Janet Miller on December 5, 2012 at 10:38pm I so appreciate this discussion of GW and of the continuing accusation that he lied about WMD's in Iraq. I have defended him in this regard any time I have heard it brought up, and I became so upset on one occasion that I actually asked the person making the argument to leave my home. As some have expressed in this post, memories are not always accurate and, over time, we begin to doubt our own convictions. I, too, have often wished that, if he was being falsely accused, that he or someone, would set the record straight. The various possible explanations being put forth herein are very helpful to my faith in him, which remains strong, and to my sanity.
Comment by Billy Bowlegs on December 5, 2012 at 11:46am And there were no WMDs!
And you believe IRAN will not attack Isarel!
And you believe Isarel will not nuke IRAN!
And? "What do you believe?"
Just reading the tea leaves, we are in for one hell of a future with OBOZO the criminal in our White House, the Governors of all States will not take a direct stance on barring his certificatin with Electoral Votes, and so on.
Turn your blind eye and let the usurping criminal have his way.
This will surely put all americans in a risk situation.
Antonio Villarigosa, Chair DNC perjured the nomination. A Crime in all states.
Comment by Steve Wilson on December 5, 2012 at 11:20am Grandma -
I think there is more to it. Saddam may have gotten the weapons from the US, I am guessing in the late 70's/early 80's, when Iraq was at war with Iran (I could be wrong there). But that was not the only issue Bush faced. Bush did not have nearly the support for invading Iraq that his father had during Desert Storm. Syria wasn't going to help us the second time around and most certainly wasn't going to admit "Yeah, we allowed Saddam to have his stock pile of WMD smuggled here so they wouldn't be destroyed allowing him to use then another day."
That said, Bush could have made all the accusations he wanted. He could have shown proof. But the only course of action he would have had left was to also conduct strikes within Syria to destroy them. A single US strike there would have turned the entire middle east on us, and most llikely on Israel for merely still existing. On top of that we probably would have lost a good portion of countries from "The Coalition of the Willing," who did initially send troops, as well as turn Russia against us.
It was a delicate international situation that had no easy fix. I do not believe he did anything for his own personal interests.
If anyone is to be blamed for these WMD being in Syria now, put the blame on the pathetic UN. Remember, for years leading up to that war, they had their idiots setting search dates with Saddam to look for evidence of these weapons. It was a total joke. Even someone with an IQ of 25 would have had sense enough to move those weapons when you know that "Next Tuesday, a bunch of UN retards are going to be poking around our plant off East Sandlot Boulevard looking for WMD."....
Comment by Grandma on December 5, 2012 at 9:45am Vern,
Oh but I think the whole long story of how all this happened is very much worth bringing up, because it continues to affect us to this very day. The thing is, (1) if we were involved in helping Iraq have WMDs, and (2)somehow supposedly GWBush did not push his case because of that history and not wanting to embarrass America, and (3) the Democrats know this and yet lyingly use this against conservatives ... then it matters, and it matters in the here and now.
Comment by Vern Shotwell on December 5, 2012 at 9:22am Sorry Grandma.
I didn't say "we gave chemical weapons to Iraq", I spoke of Tech Transfer. And, as I recall the U.S. was not the lead NATO country in said transfers. But I forgot most of this stuff.
Not worth bringing up, at this late date!
Comment by Grandma on December 5, 2012 at 9:04am Vern, who was President when we gave chemical weapons to Iraq?
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