“If Saddam isn’t stopped now, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destructiveness. And someday, someday, I guarantee you, he’ll use that arsenal.”
— William Jefferson Clinton, 1998
(More from Lileks)
There are tons of similar comments by people like Madeline Albright, Hilary Clinton, etc. I would like to know why the intelligence didn’t pan out. The intelligence community didn’t seem to be able to point out what happened to the weapons.
Well, the theory is that Saddam’s officials told him what he wanted to hear — “Yes, we’re ready to go with the bomb six months after sanctions are lifted,” etc.
There are still rumors about transfers to Syria and other places.
Interesting how much we thought we knew about Iraq’s weapons programs when we knew so little about Libya’s!