Boo Radley
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
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Actually, your assumption that everyone knew that the weapons had degraded was not widely held at the time and was not really logical.
It was not existential to Saddam that Iran believe he had chemical weapons. And since he would not show the destruction, though, Bush had said he would have to go, if he did not accept the resolution, it made sense to assume they were still functional. Of course Putin, Chirac and Schröder lead him to believe that Bush was talking big but held no stick, but the rick did remain, as the dictator found out.
To our detriment.
As for belief, Iraq's infrastructure was devastated. There was every likelihood that the weapons were degraded. Nearly everything Bush said was getting push back from experts outside the administration. That's what caused me to doubt him before we invaded.