Invasion surpised Saddam

[Ripsnort]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/24/60minutes/main3749494.shtml
Of course, there are people posted on this BBS that have said they would have supported the war if there were in fact WMD.

It certainly looks like there was every reason to believe there were, as intended by Saddam. Yet, these same people can't question for a moment the "Bush is a lying incompetent" malarky that they spew....

I suspect if tomorrow a huge cache of 4yo VX were found hidden, the opinion of the left wouldn't change one bit.

Interrogator: Invasion Surprised Saddam
Jan. 24, 2008(CBS) Saddam Hussein initially didn't think the U.S. would invade Iraq to destroy weapons of mass destruction, so he kept the fact that he had none a secret to prevent an Iranian invasion he believed could happen. The Iraqi dictator revealed this thinking to George Piro, the FBI agent assigned to interrogate him after his capture.

Piro, in his first television interview, relays this and other revelations to 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley this Sunday, Jan. 27, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Piro spent almost seven months debriefing Saddam in a plan based on winning his confidence by convincing him that Piro was an important envoy who answered to President Bush. This and being Saddam's sole provider of items like writing materials and toiletries made the toppled Iraqi president open up to Piro, a Lebanese-American and one of the few FBI agents who spoke Arabic. "He told me he initially miscalculated... President Bush’s intentions. He thought the United States would retaliate with the same type of attack as we did in 1998...a four-day aerial attack," says Piro. "He survived that one and he was willing to accept that type of attack." "He didn't believe the U.S. would invade?" asks Pelley, "No, not initially," answers Piro.

Once the invasion was certain, says Piro, Saddam asked his generals if they could hold the invaders for two weeks. "And at that point, it would go into what he called the secret war," Piro tells Pelley. But Piro isn’t convinced that the insurgency was Saddam's plan. "Well, he would like to take credit for the insurgency," says Piro.

Saddam still wouldn't admit he had no weapons of mass destruction, even when it was obvious there would be military action against him because of the perception he did. Because, says Piro, "For him, it was critical that he was seen as still the strong, defiant Saddam. He thought that [faking having the weapons] would prevent the Iranians from reinvading Iraq," he tells Pelley. He also intended and had the wherewithal to restart the weapons program. "Saddam] still had the engineers. The folks that he needed to reconstitute his program are still there," says Piro. "He wanted to pursue all of WMD…to reconstitute his entire WMD program." This included chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, Piro says.

Saddam bragged that he changed his routine and security to elude capture. "What he wanted to really illustrate is…how he was able to outsmart us," says Piro. "He told me he changed…the way he traveled. He got rid of his normal vehicles. He got rid of the protective detail that he traveled with, really just to change his signature."

It took nine months to finally capture Saddam, but U.S. calculations on where he might be early on turned out to be accurate. Saddam was at Dora Farms early in the war when the known presidential site was targeted with tons of bombs and many missiles. "He said it in a kind of a bragging fashion that he was there, but that we missed him. He wasn't bothered by the fact that he was there," Piro tells Pelley.

[AKIron]

I still believe there are WMDs hidden/lost in the desert or moved to Syria or Jordan.

[Tac]

"[Saddam] still had the engineers. The folks that he needed to reconstitute his program are still there"


...and that folks, was the real threat.

What is more dangerous than a nuke?

The scientists and engineers that make them.

You cant move radioactive material without getting some notice.. but you can move people VERY easily.

[C(Sea)Bass]

Originally posted by AKIron
I still believe there are WMDs hidden/lost in the desert or moved to Syria or Jordan.

He had a year or so of advanced warning that the U.S. was coming..I fhe watched CNN he would have known... Im sure he probably had at least some Bio weapons that he just relocated

[DiabloTX]

Originally posted by C(Sea)Bass
..If he watched CNN he would have known...

Ahhhhh...sweet irony!!

[Bodhi]

they did find wmd's just not the huge amount they were expecting that went to Syria and Jordan.

[eagl]

I'm confused now...  Are Bush and Powell still supposed to be liars since Saddam was doing his best to convince us he actually did have WMD and was intent on getting more plus nukes?

Damnit, it's not possible that anyone made an "honest" mistake, so who, other than Saddam, are we supposed to call a liar NOW?  It shouldn't be so difficult to lay blame here...  Just pick a name and point the finger, facts be damned.

[SOB]

I blame Richard Simmons for the invasion, but I blame dRippy for this stupid thread.

[Shamus]

Bush just goofed, it was an honest mistake.

Of course now some will say "prove there were no WMD"

shamus

[rpm]

Hello, and welcome to 5 years ago.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by eagl
I'm confused now...  Are Bush and Powell still supposed to be liars since Saddam was doing his best to convince us he actually did have WMD and was intent on getting more plus nukes?

Damnit, it's not possible that anyone made an "honest" mistake, so who, other than Saddam, are we supposed to call a liar NOW?  It shouldn't be so difficult to lay blame here...  Just pick a name and point the finger, facts be damned.

It sure was a lot of "mistakes."

But... like RPM says... water under the bridge. The costs are already sunk. The question now is, "How much money and how many more American lives do we keep throwing into this steaming bucket of ****."

[rpm]

How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?....

[Fishu]

Originally posted by Sandman
It sure was a lot of "mistakes."

But... like RPM says... water under the bridge. The costs are already sunk. The question now is, "How much money and how many more American lives do we keep throwing into this steaming bucket of ****."

Now that the american troops are there to bring the democracy and stabilize the country, they also better to stay there regardless of the cost. That's the only way for the USA to set things right after the invasion that they were warned against from doing.

Otherwise Iraq will be the new Afganistan - a huge terrorist training grounds, a threat that cannot be ignored.

[-tronski-]

Originally posted by Fishu

Otherwise Iraq will be the new Afganistan - a huge terrorist training grounds, a threat that cannot be ignored.

Hate to break to it to you but Iraq already is a terrorist training and deployment ground...the afghan training ground is in northern Pakistan

 Tronsky

[SWrokit]

OMG!!  Don't get me started