Liar, Liar, pants on fire
I had known I was adopted and sometime in my mid 40s I found a second Birth Certificate that said I was born under a different name on June 17th. It was not June 24th but June 17th. I had lied about my birthday, or had I? This is the situation facing President Bush and weapons of mass destruction. Did he lie, or was he just wrong?
"The great uncertainty of all data in war is a peculiar difficulty, because all action must, to a certain extent, be planned in a mere twilight, which in addition not infrequently — like the effect of a fog or moonshine — gives to things exaggerated dimensions and unnatural appearance. Carl von Clausewitz
American Intelligence said Saddam had WMD. British, Russian, U.N., and every spook of note believed it existed. This was the consensus; Iraq had chemical and perhaps biological weapons. The Egyptian President warned The United States if the invaded Iraq, Hussein would surly use chemical weapons. They were wrong. The Dictator is running a bluff.
Saddam Hussein stood like a Colossus before his people. Bigger than life, able to reward or kill at his whim, the Baathist President looked solid as the Rock of Gibraltar. In reality was Jell-O quivering in fear. Fear of his Shiite majority, fear of the Iranians, and mostly fear of the Americans. Out of this fear came a desperate plan. A Bluff worthy of Poker ledgend Amarillo Slim.
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive!"
Sir Walter Scott
You can’t say Husain’s solution wasn’t audacious. Although he had lost his chemical weapons during the Gulf War, he pretended he still had them. He bragged about them, jerked the Inspectors chain by denying them access to empty buildings, and faked convoys. He did just about everything he could do to convince the World he was armed to the teeth with Chemical Weapons. It worked. The world’s intelligence community was convinced until the Bush Administration called the bluff by invading Iraq.
Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage than audacity
Carl von Clausewitz
Although there were many arguments, some good, some bad, to invade Iraq, President Bush placed WMD at the forefront of his argument for the war. We invaded and exposed the ruse. Now the question is, was the President lying or was he just wrong?
