Russia is the largest producer and exporter of oil in the world. it is why putin has legitimate pwr because he has legit money
The best course of action for the US would be to stay out. I'm hoping Obama just flexes some muscles and blows up something to call it a day.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/18/panorama-iraq-fresh-wmd-claims MI6 and CIA were told before invasion that Iraq had no active WMD BBC's Panorama reveals fresh evidence that agencies dismissed intelligence from Iraqi foreign minister and spy chief Tony Blair's claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are challenged again in Monday's Panorama. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA Fresh evidence has been revealed about how MI6 and the CIA were told through secret channels by Saddam Hussein's foreign minister and his head of intelligence that Iraq had no active weapons of mass destruction. Tony Blair told parliament before the war that intelligence showed Iraq's nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programme was "active", "growing" and "up and running". A special BBC Panorama programme aired on Monday night details how British and US intelligence agencies were informed by top sources months before the invasion that Iraq had no active WMD programme, and that the information was not passed to subsequent inquiries. It describes how Naji Sabri, Saddam's foreign minister, told the CIA's station chief in Paris at the time, Bill Murray, through an intermediary that Iraq had "virtually nothing" in terms of WMD. Sabri said in a statement that the Panorama story was "totally fabricated". However, Panorama confirms that three months before the war an MI6 officer met Iraq's head of intelligence, Tahir Habbush al-Tikriti, who also said that Saddam had no active WMD. The meeting in the Jordanian capital, Amman, took place days before the British government published its now widely discredited Iraqi weapons dossier in September 2002. Lord Butler, the former cabinet secretary who led an inquiry into the use of intelligence in the runup to the invasion of Iraq, tells the programme that he was not told about Sabri's comments, and that he should have been. Butler says of the use of intelligence: "There were ways in which people were misled or misled themselves at all stages." When it was suggested to him that the body that probably felt most misled of all was the British public, Butler replied: "Yes, I think they're, they're, they got every reason think that." The programme shows how the then chief of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, responded to information from Iraqi sources later acknowledged to be unreliable. One unidentified MI6 officer has told the Chilcot inquiry that at one stage information was "being torn off the teleprinter and rushed across to Number 10". Another said it was "wishful thinking… [that] promised the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow". The programme says that MI6 stood by claims that Iraq was buying uranium from Niger, though these were dismissed by other intelligence agencies, including the French. It also shows how claims by Iraqis were treated seriously by elements in MI6 and the CIA even after they were exposed as fabricated including claims, notably about alleged mobile biological warfare containers, made by Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, a German source codenamed Curveball. He admitted to the Guardian in 2011 that all the information he gave to the west was fabricated. Panorama says it asked for an interview with Blair but he said he was "too busy".
use your common sense here... if iraq really had wmd, israel would have bombed it without checkig with any allies.
You don't need to bother. The famous sixteen words were based on intel that was, at a minimum, highly dubious - but more probably intentionally manipulated. In either case a blatantly stupid basis for "preventative" war. Folks still ignorant about this are intentionally so and, accordingly, not worth the effort.
An active nuclear program, maybe, but Iraq had chemical and biological weapons in the past and used them on the Kurds and Iran. There's a reason the whole country was in gas masks in the 91 war and why they are still distributed now. Everyone thought when Saddam launched SCUDs into Israel that they could be chemical or biological. Besides, Iran and Syria have them now, and the only time Israel did anything was when they recently bombed a shipment of chemical weapons in Syria to avoid them getting in the "wrong hands."
Oh, OK, Saddam's foreign minister told our intel people that Iraq had no WMD, and we were supposed to believe him. FFS, would you just go read the Duelfer report? This has all been discussed before. Saddam did have WMD but destroyed them without telling anyone after the first Gulf War. Good grief.
I think any US / NATO strike will be along these lines. Very limited and primarily for show. As I said in the other thread I haven't made up my mind whether I think action in Syria is a good idea or not but if it does happen I don't think it will involve ground troops or any major commitment of forces.
Israel did in the 80's. As far as Saddam's chemical weapons he did have them and used them but by the time of the Invasion it was pretty clear that program had long been dismantled.
No, it was clear, and it could have been clearer had we used force as a last resort. Saddam was willing to give inspectors full access. Let them do their job and there would be no question about it at all.
If you want to call facts a joke, then go ahead. I don't care. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/17/iraq.ewenmacaskill1
"The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat" - Barack Obama, 2007
I'm absolutely serious. Combat should be a last choice option if it's an option at all. There is no harm in letting the inspectors in to do their job.
