Kuwaiti soldiers look on as the last U.S. convoy crosses the border into Kuwait from Iraq, Dec. 18, 2011. U.S. Army photo by Cpl. Jordan Johnson
Iraqi Irony -- Victor Davis Hanson, NRO
We will not know the outcome of our actions for many years to come.
Amid all the stories about the ongoing violence in Syria, the most disturbing is the possibility that President Bashar Assad could either deploy the arsenal of chemical and biological weapons that his government claims it has, or provide it to terrorists.
There are suggestions that at least some of Assad’s supposed stockpile may have come from Saddam Hussein’s frantic, eleventh-hour efforts in 2002 to hide his own arsenals of weapons of mass destruction in neighboring Syria. Various retired Iraqi military officers have alleged as much. Although the story was met with general neglect or scorn from the American media, the present U.S. director of national intelligence, James Clapper, long ago asserted his belief in such a weapons transfer.
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My Comment: I am in disagreement with Victor Hanson's claims that Saddam's WMDs may (or may not) have been transported to Syria .... I am 100% convinced that Saddam never had a viable WMD program. But as to all of his other points .... they are valid. The moral of the story is that history cannot be written as it unfolds .... and in this regard .... when it comes to Iraq .... Victor Hanson is 100% correct.
2 comments:
One of the few things we disagree on. As an Iraq vet, he had them. He used them against Iran. He used them against the Kurds. They've shown up in IED's used against US Troops.
There is less than no doubt that he had them. I know guys who've cleared out some of the bunkers where they had been kept. His own GENERALS thought they had them and were waiting for the orders to use them.
Chemical and biological at least - Nuclear? That one was moribund. He had the capability to restart it, but never did.
Orion
Good point .... I forgot about his use of chemical agents during the Iran war.
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