April 27, 2006
It wasn't the Bushies who lied about Iraq...
...it was the Iraqis.
Foreign Affairs has a lengthy piece concerning the massive disinformation campaign that was in operation inside Saddam's regime. He himself had no idea what was going on. Lest they be executed - something which happened - military commanders were spinning the 1991 Persian Gulf war as a resounding military triumph.
One commander put it this way: "If it were not for these precautions, we would have suffered great loss [in the first Gulf War], but when we compare our losses with the large number of fighter aircraft, missiles, and artillery bombing that the Iraqi army was subject to we find these losses trifling. That proved that the Republican Guards and the armed forces managed to reduce the danger from air strikes."
Translated: we got our butts kicked and it's a miracle we still have an army.
More to the point:
"Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his use of chemical weapons on Kurdish civilians in 1987, was convinced Iraq no longer possessed WMD but claims that many within Iraq's ruling circle never stopped believing that the weapons still existed. Even at the highest echelons of the regime, when it came to WMD there was always some element of doubt about the truth. According to Chemical Ali, Saddam was asked about the weapons during a meeting with members of the Revolutionary Command Council. He replied that Iraq did not have WMD but flatly rejected a suggestion that the regime remove all doubts to the contrary, going on to explain that such a declaration might encourage the Israelis to attack."
A footnote has this to say:
"For many months after the fall of Baghdad, a number of senior Iraqi officials in coalition custody continued to believe it possible that Iraq still possessed a WMD capability hidden away somewhere (although they adamantly insisted that they had no direct knowledge of WMD programs). Coalition interviewers discovered that this belief was based on the fact that Iraq had possessed and used WMD in the past and might need them again; on the plausibility of secret, compartmentalized WMD programs existing given how the Iraqi regime worked; and on the fact that so many Western governments believed such programs existed."
The whole expose is a fascinating read. In short, Saddam jailed or executed anyone who presented bad news and was thus completely oblivious as to the state of things on the ground. He started planning for the final defense of Baghdad at the same time coalition armor was occupying the Presidential Palace.
The CIA provided faulty intelligence because their sources were themselves lying and/or deceived. You can't draw clean water from a polluted well.
