In your opinion....Do you think the War in Iraq is Based on Lies ?

truth seeker

we were lied to.

LIE #1: "The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program ... Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment need for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons." ï¿½ President Bush, Oct. 7, 2002, in Cincinnati.

FACT: This story, leaked to and breathlessly reported by Judith Miller in the New York Times, has turned out to be complete baloney. Department of Energy officials, who monitor nuclear plants, say the tubes could not be used for enriching uranium. One intelligence analyst, who was part of the tubes investigation, angrily told The New Republic that, "You had senior American officials like Condoleezza Rice saying the only use of this aluminum really is uranium centrifuges. She said that on television. And that's just a lie."

LIE #2: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." ï¿½ President Bush, Jan.28, 2003, in the State of the Union address.

FACT: This whopper was based on a document that the White House already knew to be a forgery thanks to the CIA. Sold to Italian intelligence by some hustler, the document carried the signature of an official who had been out of office for 10 years and referenced a constitution that was no longer in effect. The ex-ambassador who the CIA sent to check out the story is pissed: "They knew the Niger story was a flat-out lie," he told the New Republic, anonymously. "They [the White House] were unpersuasive about aluminum tubes and added this to make their case more strongly."

LIE #3: "We believe [Saddam] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." ï¿½ Vice President Cheney on March 16, 2003 on "Meet the Press."

FACT: There was and is absolutely zero basis for this statement. CIA reports up through 2002 showed no evidence of an Iraqi nuclear weapons program.

LIE #4: "[The CIA possesses] solid reporting of senior-level contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda going back a decade." ï¿½ CIA Director George Tenet in a written statement released Oct. 7, 2002 and echoed in that evening's speech by President Bush.

FACT: Intelligence agencies knew of tentative contacts between Saddam and al-Qaeda in the early '90s, but found no proof of a continuing relationship. In other words, by tweaking language, Tenet and Bush spun the intelligence180 degrees to say exactly the opposite of what it suggested.

LIE #5: "We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases ... Alliance with terrorists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints." ï¿½ President Bush, Oct. 7.

FACT: No evidence of this has ever been leaked or produced. Colin Powell told the U.N. this alleged training took place in a camp in northern Iraq. To his great embarrassment, the area he indicated was later revealed to be outside Iraq's control and patrolled by Allied war planes.

LIE #6: "We have also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We are concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] for missions targeting the United States." ï¿½ President Bush, Oct. 7.

FACT: Said drones can't fly more than 300 miles, and Iraq is 6000 miles from the U.S. coastline. Furthermore, Iraq's drone-building program wasn't much more advanced than your average model plane enthusiast. And isn't a "manned aerial vehicle" just a scary way to say "plane"?

LIE #7: "We have seen intelligence over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they're weaponized and that, in one case at least, the command and control arrangements have been established." ï¿½ President Bush, Feb. 8, 2003, in a national radio address.

FACT: Despite a massive nationwide search by U.S. and British forces, there are no signs, traces or examples of chemical weapons being deployed in the field, or anywhere else during the war.

LIE #8: "Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent. That is enough to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets." ï¿½ Secretary of State Colin Powell, Feb. 5 2003, in remarks to the UN Security Council.

FACT: Putting aside the glaring fact that not one drop of this massive stockpile has been found, as previously reported on AlterNet our own intelligence reports show that these stocks ï¿½ if they existed ï¿½ were well past their use-by date and therefore useless as weapon fodder.

LIE #9: "We know where [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat." ï¿½ Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003, in statements to the press.

FACT: Needless to say, no such weapons were found, not to the east, west, south or north, somewhat or otherwise.

LIE #10: "Yes, we found a biological laboratory in Iraq which the UN prohibited." ï¿½ President Bush in remarks in Poland, published internationally June 1, 2003.

FACT: This was reference to the discovery of two modified truck trailers that the CIA claimed were are potential mobile biological weapons lab. But British and American experts ï¿½ including the State Department's intelligence wing in a report released this week ï¿½ have since declared this to be untrue. According to the British, and much to Prime Minister Tony Blair's embarrassment, the trailers are actually exactly what Iraq said they were, facilities to fill weather balloons, sold to them by the British themselves.

AlfRed E nEuMaN 4 preSIDent

NO ....... NOT LIES ........ IT ALL BEGAN WITH JUST ONE LIE ......... then when it goes ALL WRONG ...... LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES TO COVER UP FOR THE FIRST LIE

Some Guy

In your opinion....Do you think Chucky & Lucky should get a life?

W W D

"Lies" is for petty partisanship and psychotic paranoia. Big mistakes, sure, but I for one will not hurt my country to gain for my political party, and I do not wear an aluminum-foil hat.

suede_blueyes

Yes.

Just because a lie is believed by people (because of misinformation, ignorance, etc.) that doesn't make it a truth.

Bill

Nope. There have been no lies. Democrats alike belived the same reports that Republicans had at the time of the decision.

Norton N

Absolutely. Read Fiasco by Thomas Ricks.

rubiconski

We have went from most of the world accepting the great AMERICA to now most of the world HATING us ever since BUSSSHHHHH has taken office.

Am I right on this or not?

Bottom line, we went into this war under false information.
Satellite pictures looking for nukes... Remember those pictures?

Find out there were none.

Why didn't our President learn anything from history? Don't repeat it.

yeah_but_we_all_are

Nah, just because nothing we were told was true, is no reason to think we were lied to. And who'd ever suspect an informant named 'Curveball' wasn't telling the truth?

aqruipnos888

usually the reason of having wars is enterprise and interest in huge profit and power.oil production is one reason cause the world economy rely in oil consumption.

bajricf

EVIDENCE OF CORRUPT MOTIVES FOR WAR ON IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN.
Is oil the key motive for the war against Iraq and Afghanistan? Is there a hidden agenda behind the "war on terrorism"? Read the evidence and decide for yourself.

http://www.thedebate.org/thedebate/who_next.asp

time_wounds_all_heelz

Is this crap the only thing you know how to ask? Here is your answer, though I'm sure you won't pay it any mind. It seems you only purpose here is to bash Bush, not ask serious questions.

George W. Bush never claimed to have been to Iraq. Rather, both he and Tony Blair deferred to intelligence reports and, at the same time, complained that their sources were limited by the fact that Saddam would not allow inspections under the agreements that ended the Gulf War; nor would he respect numerous UN mandates to allow unrestricted monitoring.

Though rare, there are some in the world who allege that Bush knew the reports were wrong (in some mysterious fashion), but went to war under false pretenses anyway. This would certainly qualify as a lie, but it also defies common sense and probably speaks to the ignorance, delusion, or dishonesty of the person making such an assertion.

For obvious reasons, first-term American Presidents do not send troops into combat with a primary justification that they know will be proven false before the next election. Neither do second-term Presidents for that matter, since the fallout would have devastating consequences for their political party, to say nothing of personal conscience.

Ironically, those most critical of America over the relative absence of WMDs also happen to have been the most sympathetic toward Saddamâ€™s manipulative shell games that made the war necessary in the first place. Their shallow and unbalanced moralizing gave the dictator confidence that the American President would never follow through with his threats to hold his government accountable under the WMD inspections agreements that it signed. Saddam never believed that he would wind up in a spider hole or in a hangman's noose.

Had the world united against Saddam Hussein and required that he honor international law, then the war would never have happened and the good people of Iraq would still be living under his sublime and gentle hand.

stygianwolfe

well I know where your opinions are but I'll answer you Honestly and with respect and integrity.(i'm a right -winger)
The War was not based on lies,yes there was some misinformation,but I do with out a doubt know there were WMD's we just got there too late and they went to other countries before we got there,remember Momar Quaddaiffi and what he gave up with out us asking all the chemical and other weapons he had at the beginning of the war,where do you think that stuff came from,also before the war we told Hussien to let us in and show us what he had since he had kicked out all the UN weapon inspectors and thumbed his nose at the world(UN),we gave him more than enough chances to comply and he'd still have power in his country if he had,but he chose not to.He also had the terrorist camps in Iraq and some were in Afghanistan,Osama fled from there to Iraq,then to Pakistan,his money trail went through all three countries but Pakistan agreed to sieze his assets,so we stayed out of there,now these are all facts,look them up,and now Iran is trying to buy yellow cake(a chemical compound used in the making of thermo-nuclear weapons) so what do you think he will do with them,Israel first I'm sure,we are really dealing with madmen in this region,and it all started with Yasser Arafat in the 70's and the PLO,and this is where it went to,then came the Ayatolla Khomeni,who revolutionized the American-Jew hating Islamic radicals.the next step will make 9/11 look very un dramatic I'm sure,just from the history in the middle east I've seen in my lifetime,it aint gonna get better

oldster

Yes. Prez. Bush and advisers messed up!
Tragic mistake!
Old Army vet for withdrawal, though i don't know how we can!

goodtimefriend

There was some bad intelligence but not lies... Everyone thought Iraq had WMD's not just Bush... The world is better w/out Saddam Hussein... Without the Tali Ban in Afghanistan....

The war was based on the fact that Iraq had a ceasfire agreement from the first gulf war and they were not adhereing to it. The broke 21 United Nations resolutions. If we didnt go to war in Iraq the UN would have be reduced to nothing and no one would ever listen to what the said again.

Boomer Wisdom

Saddam broke the conditions of the armistice from the first Gulf War.

Period. End of line. Nothing further is needed except by Neville Chamberlain, and he's dead.

longview cycle lady

No.

Q-burt

I am going to spare you and only ask you.. "have you been there?"

If you havn't, then honestly...you shouldn't be commenting on something you know nothing about.

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