Good onya Poirot

Keep on nailing him mate. You're winning :)

Cheers

To Poirot.

Errr, no. I knew that Saddam Hussein said he was building a nuclear weapon because I saw him on TV holding up a nuclear triggering device with a "look what I have got!" smile on his face, while his generals sniggered behind him. If you ever got your head out of the Green Left Weekly, you might figure out what is really going on in the world.

Had you done so, you might have remembered that the UN officials charged with finding Hussein's WMD's were constantly frustrated by Hussein's thugs from investigating any leads they had. At one time, Australia's Richard Butler had an AK 47 stuck in his face when he tried to investigate a convoy of trucks that were fleeing a site that he and his team were informed by US intelligence was storing WMD's.

I repeat, Saddam Hussein tried his best to convince the world he was building a nuclear weapon, although you must have been sucking a bong at the time and was somewhere in Lotus Land when he was doing that. His games with the UN inspectors is a matter of public record. But hey, you are not going to let the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

Allied forces liberated Kuwait from Hussein's war of conquest. Kuwait was an independent country and a UN member. The USA then became mired in Southern Iraq trying to protect the rebelling Southern Shiites in Basra from Saddam Hussein's revenge. Civilians were trying to cross into the US zone every day for protection. That horrible USA which you have been conditioned to hate, set up no fly zones to prevent the Iraqi Air Force from bombing civilian areas. But the Americans wanted to go home. Had Saddam simply settled down and behaved himself, he would still be alive today and running a united Iraq.

Since reality does not fit your US hating theories, you will never give the yanks credit for anything. They are damned if the do, and damned if they don't.

LEGO,

"Errr, no. I knew that Saddam Hussein said he was building a nuclear weapon because I saw him on TV holding up a nuclear triggering device with a "look what I have got!" smile on his face, while his generals sniggered behind him...."

Well, there you have it!

It's a shame the UN didn't come to you before it undertook all that stuffing around on the ground in Iraq looking for WMDs.

"I repeat, Saddam Hussein tried his best to convince the world he was building a nuclear weapon..."

As above....

The Downing Street memo:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2005/jun/09/the-secret-way-to-war/

"Thanks to a formerly secret memorandum published by the London Sunday Times on May 1, during the run-up to the British elections, we now have a partial answer to that question. The memo, which records the minutes of a meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s senior foreign policy and security officials...."

"....Whatever the Iraqis chose to do or not do, the President’s decision to go to war had long since been made."

"C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

Seen from today’s perspective this short paragraph is a strikingly clear template for the future, establishing these points:

1. By mid-July 2002, eight months before the war began, President Bush had decided to invade and occupy Iraq.

2. Bush had decided to “justify” the war “by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD.”

3. Already “the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”

4. Many at the top of the administration did not want to seek approval from the United Nations (going “the UN route”).

5. Few in Washington seemed much interested in the aftermath of the war."

Here's a clip of General Wesley Clark revealing plans to invade Iraq, only weeks after 9/11.

"We've made the decision to go to War in Iraq. This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, "We're going to war with Iraq? Why?" He said, "I don't know." He said, "I guess they don't know what else to do." So I said, "Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?" He said, "No, no." He says, "There's nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8YtF76s-yM

That's right, Poirot "There you have it." With my own eyes I saw Saddam Hussein holding aloft a critical component of a nuclear weapon, thereby breaking the peace agreement with the US made in 1990, which stipulated that he must destroy all of his WMD.

Britain is an independent country with a foreign policy often at odds with Washington, but even Britain under a socialist Labor government realised that Saddam Hussein was a threat to world peace.

Dismissing your points, one by one.

1. The Gulf War ended in 1990, and Saddam Hussein had 13 years to comply with the peace agreement imposed on him by the Americans. You see Poirot, when you win a war, you get to dictate terms, and the loser has to comply if he does not want the winner to take military action against him again. For 13 years Saddam Hussein did everything he could to violate the peace terms and annoy the Americans. He got around the blockade with the help of UN Secretary Kofi Annan's son who made a financial killing shipping Iraqi oil into Turkey using trucks. By your own quote, the yanks gave Saddam over 12 years to comply with their peace deal before they resumed military action.

2. Christian nations traditionally "justify" their reason to go to war. Saddam did it the old way. Just invade anybody you please and take over their country and pillage their resources.

3. Saddam Hussein was not complying with the peace deal. After 13 years of non compliance, the US used their military intelligence and what facts they knew to justify their decision to resume the war. How you see something wrong with that is beyond me.

4. The US did not seek the approval of the UN because the UN would never give their approval for a war. UN troops will stand in their bases and watch thousands being shot to death (Bosnia) or macheted to death (Rwanda) right in front of them, and do nothing.

5. Your last point is just a negative opinion.

Thanks LEGO,

Now who should I give more credence - you or the Downing Street "memo, which records the minutes of a meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s senior foreign policy and security officials...."?

Again:

"C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action."

I saw Saddam holding up that 'thingy' too - and you say that establishes everything?

Lol!