On Fri, 3 Jul 2009 23:40:52 -0400, "Eisboch"
wrote:


"Vic Smith" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 3 Jul 2009 21:59:59 -0400, "Eisboch"
wrote:




Were you vacationing on Jupiter or something when this was happening?
You don't recall Saddam kicking the inspectors out?
You don't recall him letting them back in, but the Chief Inspector threw
in
the towel due to restrictions imposed by Saddam?
You don't recall about 6 months of UN hearings and calling for Saddam to
come clean?

Being a news junkie of sorts here's part of what I remember.
I've seen it is often forgotten, or maybe not even noticed.
The Congressional vote to give GWB war powers was touted
as a cudgel to get the UN to pass a further resolution.
That worked.
As the U.S. military built up and the engine was warming up,
I saw a live CNN report from Iraq where Hans Blitz, the chief UN
arms inspector, was asked some questions.
This was about 2 weeks out from the invasion.
It only lasted a couple minutes.
He said he could go anywhere now with his choppers, even Saddams
presidential palaces, to look for WMD.
He was asked why he wasn't inspecting the sites that Colin Powell
had marked at the UN on big maps.
He said,
"Because General Powell won't give me the locations."
He was very frustrated.
A few months into the war our guys examined a location that Powell
has pointed his pointer at and told the UN, "This is a WMD production
and transportation point."
Now a news crew was showing that site. It was a field that contained
a bunch of abandoned old semi-trailers, rusty and with flat tires.
So much for me ever believing a word Colin Powell ever spoke again.
The biggests element of us going into Iraq was the closeness of 9/11
and trust in GWB to do the right thing.
The leaders, both political and in the press, fell down in their duty
to raise questions.
Too many people not thinking.
I was against going in until Blitz had his chance, but I happened to
see that interview with him.
If that had been more widely broadcast, the story may have been
different.

--Vic

Blitz changed his tune as the world's mood changed.
People forget that at one time he was expressing the loudest complaints of
Saddam's restrictions imposed on his inspection teams. In fact, shortly
before the war started, he threw in the towel and announced they could not
do their job. I don't recall the finger of blame being pointed at Powell.
I recall it being pointed at Saddam.

When the "Bush lied to us" routine started, that's when Blitz suddenly
joined the bandwagon.

Eisboch

Holy crap. You can't just take a point in time and assume we acted on
the information at that point.

The situation progressed well beyond everyone "knowing" where stuff
was and it was Blitz who was asking for more time to conduct
inspection when he and his teams were pulled out so GW could move
forward with the invasion.

His case was quickly coming apart and now we're learning that Cheney
was using enhanced interogation techniques to try to get someone to
confirm the link between Iraq and al Qaeda.

Evidently, what was transparent for us all to see back then is still
an opaque mystery to you.