On 4/30/05, JDG <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > Given that Saddam Hussein had kicked out UN inspsection teams, that US > troops were only along the Southern Border of Iraq, and what we now know > about how UN sanctions operated on Iraq, particularly the Oil-for-Food > program, do you believe that these sanctions would have effectively > prevented Saddam Hussein from selling chemical and biological weapons on > the black market to the highest bidder? I can't let this pass - Saddam did not kick out the UN inspection teams - technically the US issued a threat to them - if you stay you may be bombed. US forces were patrolling the skies of both northern and southern Iraq - in fact had escalated interdict ions of targets in the last year of Clinton's administration. Sanctions pretty much effectively shutdown weapons procurement - their purpose. The Oil-For-Food program, primarily run by the US and the UK, was riddled with corruption as left publications complained of at the time.
There were no chemical and bio weapons, the secular Iraq was not interested in arming it's enemies - fanatical religious terrorists with close ties to what Saddam considered his main enemy Iran. So yes, Saddam selling bio/chems to terrorists is the last lying refuge of flatheads desperate to justify a war that has cost American taxpayers $3,000 each in additional debt, thousands of lives, and decreased our security. Or did you miss that major terrorist attacks tripled last year? Gary > > Also, do you believe that the above would have effectively prevented Saddam > Hussein from purchasing a full-assembled nuclear weapon from the DPRK over > the long run? Every country in the world can now purchase nuclear weapons from rogue elements in the USSR. GOP leaders in Congress defunded for over a year the major program preventing that. Some people in this administration leaked the name of one of the CIA's few deep cover operatives whose responsibility was preventing WMD proliferation to a partisan columnist in a cheap political shot at her husband. BTW, I call that treason and believe that Novak and the people who did that should be tried and then shot. -- Gary Denton Easter Lemming Blogs http://elemming.blogspot.com http://elemming2.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
