When Everyone Agreed About Iraq

Wall Street Journal ^

[Sub-Driver]

When Everyone Agreed About Iraq

For years before the war, a bipartisan consensus thought Saddam possessed WMD. By STEPHEN F. KNOTT

At 5:34 a.m. on March 20, 2003, American, British and other allied forces invaded Iraq. One of the most divisive conflicts in the nation's history would soon be labeled " Bush's War."

The overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime became official U.S. policy in 1998, when President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act—a bill passed 360-38 by the House of Representatives and by unanimous consent in the Senate. The law called for training and equipping Iraqi dissidents to overthrow Saddam and suggested that the United Nations establish a war-crimes tribunal for the dictator and his lieutenants.

The legislation was partly the result of frustration over the undeclared and relatively unheralded "No-Fly Zone War" that had been waged since 1991. Saddam's military repeatedly fired on U.S. and allied aircraft that were attempting to prevent his regime from destroying Iraqi opposition forces in northern and southern Iraq.

According to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Hugh Shelton, in 1997 a key member of President Bill Clinton's cabinet (thought by most observers to have been Secretary of State Madeleine Albright) asked Gen. Shelton whether he could arrange for a U.S. aircraft to fly slowly and low enough that it would be shot down, thereby paving the way for an American effort to topple Saddam. Kenneth Pollack, a member of Mr. Clinton's National Security Council staff, would later write in 2002 that it was a question of "not whether but when" the U.S. would invade Iraq. He wrote that the threat presented by Saddam was "no less pressing than those we faced in 1941."

[Sub-Driver]

To the point.......

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Sub-Driver.

According to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Hugh Shelton, in 1997 a key member of President Bill Clinton's cabinet (thought by most observers to have been Secretary of State Madeleine Albright) asked Gen. Shelton whether he could arrange for a U.S. aircraft to fly slowly and low enough that it would be shot down, thereby paving the way for an American effort to topple Saddam. Kenneth Pollack, a member of Mr. Clinton's National Security Council staff, would later write in 2002 that it was a question of "not whether but when" the U.S. would invade Iraq. He wrote that the threat presented by Saddam was "no less pressing than those we faced in 1941."

[kenavi]

There’s an inconvenient truth in there about Al Gore as well.

[blueunicorn6]

We sure are seeing a lot of this Syria = Libya = Iraq writing the last couple of days. If that’s the case, then why not Canada = Iraq or Mexico = Iraq? There is a difference between fighting Iraq and fighting Libya or Syria. Follow the money.

[justlurking]

The article is behind a paywall, so I can't read it.

Do they mention that Saddam intentionally fueled the belief that he still had WMDs? After Saddam was captured, the FBI agent interrogating him asked why he continued to act like he was hiding WMDs, when he really didn't have them.

Saddam said that he was essentially bluffing to keep all his enemies at bay, which included Iran, Israel and all the various opposition groups WITHIN Iraq. He didn't think the US had the political will to mount a ground offensive and remove him.