I think the Bush administration reported it without much hoopla and hype because they were timid due to the failure to find ready for use stockpiles. The reporting that was done at the time was downplayed by the mainstream media as minor, very old, not significant in an unrelenting drone.
There was testimony at hearings about these findings but the media repetitive drone was that Bush lied, soldiers died and the truth never was carried in a way that people became aware of it. But these same reports were made then, I read them.
Agreed.
Reports of these things have been trickling out since the war. About six years ago a Liberal friend of mine called BS on another friend, who was a military officer who had encounter some of these remnants during one of his tours there.
So the issue here isn’t that the information wasn’t out there; it’s that the press wouldn’t report it because it didn’t fit the no WMDs narrative. And because there was no active weapons program found, the Bush Admin didn’t feel it appropriate to push the issue.
Yes I read these reports too. At the time the NYT was saying they were paltry finds and Bush was still guilty because these weren’t stockpiles.
What is the NYT trying to pull here?
The Bush administration was it’s own worst enemy. If they had fought back against the democrats and leftist media the way they did against Saddam it would have made a world of difference.