[Ace Pace]

Um, 1 sec.  I remember it on Panorama or something, i'll need to check the bbc website for news stories.

Holy smokes thats some screwed up quote tags. 

[Ace Pace]

Just found something neat.

Fox News’ Jim Angle contacted the Defense Department who quickly disavowed Santorum and Hoekstra’s claims. A Defense Department official told Angle flatly that the munitions hyped by Santorum and Hoekstra are “not the WMD’s for which this country went to war.”

[snip]

 And Jim Angle reported this for Fox News quotes a defense official who says these were pre-1991 weapons that could not have been fired as designed because they already been degraded. And the official went on to say these are not the WMD’s this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had and not the WMD’s for which this country went to war.

[Kosh]

More proof of Saddam's brinksmanship being abombinable, I guess. He could have averted this...

I doubt that. The US was hell-bent on going to war and was willing to use any possible excuse to do it, fabricated or otherwise.

[Rictor]

What would be the estimated Iraqi body-count from sanctions right form when they were set?

I would say about a million, half of that children. Those are reliable, generally confirmed numbers as a result of economic sanctions.

[Mefustae]

And who ever said the UN wasn't effective.

[Bobboau]

I thought it was more.

[NGTM-1R]

I doubt that. The US was hell-bent on going to war and was willing to use any possible excuse to do it, fabricated or otherwise.

Perhaps. He certainly could have made it more difficult, though, but instead made the task easier, not harder.

[AlphaOne]

Now I know why Germany and France along with other major european powers refused to go to war in Irak. Bush was full of...well full of it and they wanted no part in this.

Oh and heres another thing why bomb them into submission when you can starve them to death. Its far cheaper. But not as efective or humane for that matter from mi POW. I bleive starving a population to death or because of lack of medical care due to lack of meny is far more sinister.

[SadisticSid]

Seems like this is an attempt to brand things like artillery shells filled with nerve gas as WMDs which could hit western targets. These antiquitated, short-range devices are no threat to anyone but Israel, even if they could be fired without exploding in the firing chamber. If they found weapons that could conceivably be used against the East Coast US cities - as the government told its Senators - then I'd be sympathetic.

[Mefustae]

...even if they could be fired without exploding in the firing chamber.

"Commandant, we have loaded the Nerve-gas shells and we are ready to fire"
"Excellent. Corporal, you may fire at will"
*Chink*
*Hissss*
"Hey, what smells like gas...?"

[Kazan]

Sarin and Mustard gas weapons that old are no longer dangerous - sarin is completely harmless and mustard gas that old may give you a rash

doesn't stop republicans (santorum) from going on FNC declaring Mission Accomplished: WMD and start screaming that saddam had WMD

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22434436.htm

[Kosh]

even if they could be fired without exploding in the firing chamber.

Big if though.

Thing is that Saddam was surrounded by countries that did not like him. They weren't afraid of him because they knew his military was a wreck and that whatever WMDs that were left over from the Iran-Iraq and Gulf Wars were unusable. Despite this they still opposed the war. They opposed it because they were afraid of the consequences of the chaos in Iraq.