Cheney’s Wishful Thinking: Iraq Had ‘Capability To Produce’ WMD When We Invaded
Cheney’s Wishful Thinking: Iraq Had ‘Capability To Produce’ WMD When We Invaded
Earlier this month at a debate on President Bush’s legacy in New York, Karl Rove claimed that if the Bush administration had known before the war that Iraq did not possess WMD, the U.S. would likely not have invaded:
QUESTION: Had the intelligence been accurate prior to the invasion of Iraq, would the invasion have still taken place, in your view?
ROVE: No. … I suspect the administration’s course would have been to work to find more creative ways to constrain him than he’d been constrained in the nineties.
In a new interview with ABC News, however, Vice President Cheney disputed Rove’s assessment. Asked specifically about Rove’s comment, Cheney said that the U.S. would have invaded regardless of whether or not Saddam Hussein possessed WMD because he retained the “capability to produce weapons of mass destruction“:
CHENEY: As I look at the intelligence with respect to Iraq, what they got wrong was that there weren’t any stockpiles. What they found was that Saddam Hussein still had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction. He had the technology, he had the people, he had the basic feed stock.
Watch it:
Cheney appears to be confusing “capability” with “desire.” Indeed, in 2004, the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) — which searched Iraq for Hussein’s supposed WMD stockpiles — concluded in a 1,000 page report that Iraq “had the desire but not the capability to create weapons that could attack the west” at the time of the U.S. invasion. Additionally, the ISG confirmed that Iraq’s WMD capabilities were “essentially destroyed” in the 1991 Gulf War:
Saddam wanted to recreate Iraq’s WMD capability—which was essentially destroyed in 1991—after sanctions were removed and Iraq’s economy stabilized, but probably with a different mix of capabilities to that which previously existed.
Five years later, Cheney still can’t bring himself to admit he was wrong about Iraq.
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Sorry, but slingshots do NOT qualify as WMDs.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:50 amCheney’s Wishful Thinking: Iraq Had ‘Capability To Produce’ WMD When We Invaded»
– - Say it three times in a row while tapping your heels together Dick, and maybe it will come true.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:54 amI still do not understand why this gutless administration has yet to invade Canada, our nearest neighboring country, which has the capability of producing WMD as well as just marching over the border to destroy us. Can anyone imagine the sheer humiliation if our great citizens were taken over by the Force from the North and we suddenly had to start saying “eh” in every sentence?
/snark off
December 16th, 2008 at 10:54 amSo, there wasn’t enough “constraining” in the nineties.
More red meat for the 30 percenters. It’s Clinton’s fault.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:56 amAs soon as by one’s own propaganda even a glimpse of right on the other side is admitted, the cause for doubting one’s own right is laid.
-Adolf Hitler
December 16th, 2008 at 10:57 amI hope someone in the next Administration is paying close attention to the exit interviews that Bush and Cheney have been giving. There have been several bold admissions of law breaking from Cheney acknowleging that he personally signed of on waterboarding to Bush stating that he would have illegally entered Iraq even if intel agencies had stressed (more than they did?) that there were no WMDs. They seem to be relying solely on the pipe dream that if their lawyers say it’s not illegal then it’s a-ok to torture and start wars of aggression despite signed treaties, long held pacts and those pesky old domestic laws. Not to mention all those pesky Constitutional laws that they have trampled on…
December 16th, 2008 at 11:02 amI agree with Cheney that in one sense Obama will be grateful for the Presidency that he inherits from Bush & the Boyz. Bush was so horrible for the country that any act that follows will shine in comparison.
I make pretty bad lasagna, but if the appetizer course is dog turds on a toothpick, the pasta tastes damn good.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:05 amI can only imagine that every time Cheney speaks, there are many world leaders who see the U.S. as having the ability and the intent to attack their countries. It’s certainly not hard to imagine this because Cheney seems equally ready, willing, and able to attack his own country.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:08 amnanlichi, the Bush administration didn’t even supply the toothpicks.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:09 amThe FACIST PIG WAR CRIMINAL, Chenney has admited on camera approving and supporting TORTURE. The EVIDENCE is on the record now. HAGUE 2009!
December 16th, 2008 at 11:11 amHey, Obama will be MIGHTY grateful to assume Bush’s Presidency. MIGHTY grateful, yassuh, boss.
CHICAGO — The White House has turned down a request from the family of President-elect Barack Obama to move into Blair House in early January so that his daughters can start school on Jan. 5.
The Obamas were told that Blair House, where incoming presidents usually stay in the five days before Inauguration Day, is booked in early January, a spokesperson to the Obama transition said. “We explored the idea so that the girls could start school on schedule,’ the spokesperson said. “But, there were previously scheduled events and guests that couldn’t be displaced.”
It remained unclear who on Bushes’ guest list outranked the incoming President.
And, as a Negro-American, Cheney will expect Obama to work FIVE TIMES AS HARD as the white men who preceded him at the job. That is only natural.
Favorite Mike Malloy quote: Have I told you lately how much I hate these people?
December 16th, 2008 at 11:12 amnanlichi Says:
I make pretty bad lasagna, but if the appetizer course is dog turds on a toothpick, the pasta tastes damn good.
_____________
If I didn’t know better, nanlichi, I’d have to think you’re comparing Botch & Dick to “dog turds on a toothpick”… oh… you are? Carry on… carry on, by all means.
Now, as far as Saddam and those WMDs. Cheney should know, shouldn’t he?
After all, HE GAVE ‘EM TO SADDAM BACK IN THE 80’s… ALONG W/ VON RUMSFELD’S HELPING HAND. Talk about hypocrits.
I wonder… was that Saddam’s last thought as the gallows opened up on him –
“G-damned backstabber Cheney… and Rumsfeld”???
December 16th, 2008 at 11:12 amThe WMD that Iraq had in the 80’s came from the USA…
December 16th, 2008 at 11:12 amSo we are now invading a country because they have knowledge ? Kind of a dire comment on what we think of education, ain’t it ?
And Obama will be thankful he inherited the stock crash, the S&L, the auto makers, Gitmo, War in Iraq, War in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India with nukes, …….. ?
December 16th, 2008 at 11:13 amI honestly cannot imagine Cheney EVER being able to admit that he was wrong about anything. It would be major news if he genuinely had even the slightest twinge of regret about any of it.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:15 amEvery time Cheney speaks, somewhere an Angel dies….
Since most college physics labs (and some fraternity basements) have the ‘capability to produce weapons of mass destruction’, should we anticipate an invasion of MIT anytime soon?
December 16th, 2008 at 11:16 amColor me confused, but I thought it was against the law to invade another country just because they had the capability to produce a weapon.
This administration has put the USofA in a very bad position. I mean, don’t WE have the capability to produce WMD?
December 16th, 2008 at 11:16 amI have the capability to build a bomb in my basement. That is, if I had a basement. Of course, I’d have to go to the internet to get the bomb recipe (I’ve heard you can find out darn near anything there). And I’d have to go shopping for the ingredients. And I’d have to find some reason for wanting to do such a bizarre thing. But I have the “capability”. Does this mean that Cheney wants to take me out, too?
There are many countries in this high-tech world that have the “capability” to produce WMDs. I suspect that in Cheney’s ideal fantasy world, we’d be bombing all of them back to the stone age.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:18 amCheney also predicted that Barack Obama “will be grateful for the state of presidency he inherits from President Bush.”
Most Americans will be grateful this conceited bag of bones warhawk chickenshit draft dodging lying evildoer will be out of office.
Now I’ll tell you how I really feed about Big Dick…
December 16th, 2008 at 11:21 amOops, ‘Now I’ll tell you how I really feel about Big Dick’
December 16th, 2008 at 11:22 amFeed stock? Did Saddam Hussein possess Cattle of Mass Defecation?
December 16th, 2008 at 11:27 amshoeless Says:
Feed stock? Did Saddam Hussein possess Cattle of Mass Defecation?
_______________
At least it appears Cheney is finally admitting global warming can be destructive.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:31 amshoeless Says:
CHENEY: …he had the basic feed stock.
Feed stock? Did Saddam Hussein possess Cattle of Mass Defecation?
December 16th, 2008 at 11:27 am
________
Don’t underestimate the destructive potential of cows. The Ames strain of anthrax used in the 2001 mail attacks was isolated from a cow in Iowa.
And let’s not forget the climate impacts of bovine flatulence.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:32 am“A lie told often enough becomes the truth” V. I. Lennin.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:34 amWorst Vice President Ever.
Worst Administration Ever.
Worst President Ever.
Now That’s a Legacy!
Impeach. There’s Still Time!
Still so wrong after so many years means he’s hopelessly delusional. Since he was so wrong about being greeted as liberators and how the invasion would go, it’s safe to say he doesn’t have a clue how Obama will feel.
cheney doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He never has, or else Saddam et al would be our friends to this day, fighting Iranians along our side.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:37 amQUESTION: Had the intelligence been accurate prior to the invasion of Iraq, would the invasion have still taken place, in your view?
The ‘intelligence’ that was “to blame” for the failure to find WMD was specifically selected by the Bush administration precisely to support their public claims, at the exclusion of intelligence that undermined their claims.
Rove’s response now, is to blame the CIA, thereby admitting that the invasion of Iraq was a “mistake”–but according to him an “honest” one.
Bush and Cheney however, after insisting on the veracity of their intelligence information as providing incontrovertible justification for the invasion of Iraq, now say that their ‘evidence’ was irrelevant—which is, remarkably, the truth.
They now admit no “mistake” whatsoever ( even though they have blamed the CIA as the source for their faulty intelligence even though it was entirely their own creation). So somehow in their twisted world in undermining their own rationales for war their actions are even more justifiable now than they were then! Because they say so!
December 16th, 2008 at 11:38 amSO?
December 16th, 2008 at 11:46 amsacopenapa Says: The WMD that Iraq had in the 80’s came from the USA…
RoStupidity: After all, HE GAVE ‘EM TO SADDAM BACK IN THE 80’s… ALONG W/ VON RUMSFELD’S HELPING HAND. Talk about hypocrits.
In my research I found that actually collectively several nations basically sold Hussein an off-the-shelf WMD ‘kit’–from processing equipment for nerve gas precursors, the chemicals themselves, dedicated ‘delivery systems’ etc.
The US, Israel, the UK, China, Russia and Germany were all involved to one degree or another, either as government policy or with a nod and a wink to private companies to make a profit and by quietly “doing business”, assist in a proxy war against oil-rich Iran.
Apart from using the idea of WMD’s as a public excuse for what was a predetermined decision to invade and occupy Iraq, it was the very fact of having supplied Iraq with WMD’S that lent the claims some credence.
The really awkward bit was the argument that Hussein was a ‘monster’ because he’d used chemical weapons “on his own people’ so it was important to also suggest he;d use them on other nations too—never mind the fact that the US didn;t complain about using those same weapons on Iranians, nor were there any complaints when he did use them on mostly the Kurds later on.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:57 amIs Cheney protected by the secret service after he leaves office?
December 16th, 2008 at 12:15 pmpax Says: Is Cheney protected by the secret service after he leaves office?
Yes. But I don;t think he’ll be followed around by an ambulance all the time as well, unless he pays for it himself.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:32 pm“Wrong”???? Cheney wasn’t “wrong” about the existence of WMD or the Iraqis’ potential for acquiring them. He knew damn well what the real story was but how could he “divvy up” Iraq’s oil resources amongst himself and his buddies without ginning up a whole passel of war hysteria first?
I can hear him now responding to concerns that the truth of Iraq’s impotence might come out: “So?”
December 16th, 2008 at 12:38 pmThis admin is the gift (non-refundable) that keeps on “giving.”
Enough already!!
December 16th, 2008 at 12:41 pmThat’s true. Dave Barry has documented several cases of exploding cows. Saddam Hussein could have straped them to his unmanned aerial vehicles and dropped them on unsuspecting farmers in Iowa.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:48 pmI think that there has to be 100 countries with the capability to build nuclear weapons.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:50 pmCheney is a real BSer, and war criminal who needs to be brought to justice in the new year.
December 16th, 2008 at 1:00 pmThis administration will continue to attempt to re-write history until the end of their lives.
In addition to putting ANY country who followed this same policy in jeopardy of being condemned, or attacked, by the rest of the world it is simply WRONG.
Using this moronic logic, ANY country in the world could simply justify aggression by saying that they “thought” they might be attacked. No proof of that would ever be necessary.
At the same time, both the Republicans AND the DEMOCRATS should have been held responsible for never holding the President responsible for this.
December 16th, 2008 at 1:05 pmThese comments coming from a man to scared to serve his country and got the 5 deferments even using his wife for one. Now he wants Americans to believe what he says after thousands of soldiers are dead, thousands injured, millions of Iraqis homeless, thousands of innecent Iraqis killed, thousands of Iraq men/woman/children kidnapped tortured/raped/murdered, the World Leaders lied to by Powell and chaos sround the world with the stealing and blackmail. I guess Cheney feels Americans are so stupid after 8 years of making fools of us he can continue. WRONG!! Cheney should be charged by the United Nations with War Crimes and Murder.
December 16th, 2008 at 1:06 pm“What they found was that Saddam Hussein still had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction.”
No, Mr. Cheney, the chlorine Hussein kept under his kitchen sink doesn’t qualify as “capability” to produce WMD.
Just admit you were wrong already…
December 16th, 2008 at 2:00 pmCheney is lying.
December 16th, 2008 at 2:36 pm5th Estate Says:
pax Says: Is Cheney protected by the secret service after he leaves office?
Yes.
Daddy-O sez: Not too sure about that. I read a good article in The New Yorker about Al and Tipper Gore a few years ago; the Secret Service were hardly ever to be found. I’m pretty sure that Secret Service protection for life only applies to Presidents.
Until they kill an ex- or sitting Vice President. Perhaps a precedent needs to be set?
December 16th, 2008 at 3:23 pmWell Bush said on television that Iran would be a terrible threat if they had the knowledge to build nuclear weapons. The War on Possibilities is a neo-con racket.
December 16th, 2008 at 3:49 pmOh, to be born without a conscience!
December 16th, 2008 at 4:51 pmWhat a stupid talking point. We have a name for countries WITHOUT the capability to produce WMDS. Stoneage agrarian societies.
December 16th, 2008 at 5:16 pmUmmm, no. As I keep pointing out…
Powell, 2001: He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq…
There’s no question that they have some stockpiles of some of these sorts of weapons still under their control, but they have not been able to break out, they have not been able to come out with the capacity to deliver these kinds of systems or to actually have these kinds of systems that is much beyond where they were 10 years ago.
Oh, and Powell stated that the sanctions had been reconfigured in order to continue to contain Saddam.
thememoryhole.org/war/powell-no-wmd.htm
December 16th, 2008 at 5:54 pm