Pentagon: Saddam Hussein's Iraq had no links to Al Qaeda

[Tibu]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military's first and only study looking into ties between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda showed no connection between the two, according to a military report released by the Pentagon.

The report released by the Joint Forces Command five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq said it found no "smoking gun" after reviewing about 600,000 Iraqi documents captured in the invasion and looking at interviews of key Iraqi leadership held by the United States, Pentagon officials said.

The assessment of the al Qaeda connection and the insistence that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction were two primary elements in the Bush administration's arguments in favor of going to war with Iraq.

The Pentagon's report also contradicts then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who said in September 2002 that the CIA provided "bulletproof" evidence demonstrating "that there are, in fact, al Qaeda in Iraq."

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/13/alqaeda.saddam/index.html

I know this is stating the obvious at least for people who aren't and weren't brainwashed by the Bush fear machine. So, no WMD, no Al Qaeda and no link to terrorism, that leaves us with... wait why are we there again? I can just picture children in their history class 20 years from now studying the war in Iraq as one of the great military and political blunders in American history.

 

[Redworm]

that leaves us with... wait why are we there again?

To bring freedom to the Iraqis. That's why we're also leading the charge in Darfur and in other African nations where people are oppressed. It's why we're invading Taiwan and Moscow, too. Everyone deserves America Brand© Freedom.

 

[hogdogs]

If'n we were after iraq for an "oil war" we would be spending a a buck and a quarter per gallon for gas...
If'n we were after "THE TERRORISTS" we would have attacked Saudi Arabia as the vast majority of terrorists in the 9/11 attack and their bossman were from there.
If'n we were instilling democracy to the MID EAST we would have attacked Lybia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and others...
If'n we were after WMD's we had several options... My father says we were begged by the populace to come instill democracy but I missed them news reports... Okay folks... I am gonna let ya'll in on a little bit of southern intelligence... I have the ability to smell poo-poo on a shoe from a great distance and i am brazen enuff to point a finger and say it... "I SMELL POO-POO ON SOMEONE'S SHOE"... I may just be a southern retard but...
Brent

 

[4sarge]

Whack a Mole..

Only instead of a silly game where you hit a mole with a hammer, you Whack Osama Bin Laden with $$.

There must be an active recruiting campaign in the mideast to get Bin Laden to move to your country. Then the US will send Billions to "find" him. Currently in Pakistan, next stop????

Rumblings in Iran. I had a thought that some sort of confrontation needs to be started in Iran, to assure a McCain victory. Now I hear McCain saying it wouldn't surprise him if Iran started something to derail McCain's election chances. The saber continues to rattle.

 

[Technosavant]

1) Hindsight is 20/20. Had we known then what we know now, the Iraq war never would have occurred; you wouldn't have gotten Congress to go for it.

2) If we up and bail, leaving the Iraqis with a "so sorry, wish we hadn't, good luck," the place will descend into complete and utter chaos, despite the appearance that things are finally getting under control. That sort of vacuum of control is what was left in Afghanistan after the Soviets pulled out and we abandoned the people, and the Taliban set up shop. I'm not sure we want to commit that same error again; after all, I do distinctly remember the same folks screaming for us to get out of Iraq complaining in the aftermath of 9/11 how it was our fault for not ensuring order came to Afghanistan after the Soviet pullout.

OK, we were sold a bill of goods, intentionally or not (I tend to believe that while Bush was looking for excuses to go in and placed too much value on dubious intel, he didn't deliberately lie to get us there), going in. That doesn't do us any good now. Now we have to consider the consequences of our actions and try to leave the place better than we found it. As Colin Powell said, "you break it, you bought it." He was indeed right- we married Iraq when we invaded, and now we're there until it can stand on its own. That time is drawing closer, but it isn't quite here yet.

 

[Alleykat]

Now we have to consider the consequences of our actions and try to leave the place better than we found it.

Maybe we can dig up and breathe life back into Saddam? He did a better job of keeping his uncivilized tribal savage brothers in line than we'll ever do. We're in an intractable mess, EXACTLY like we were in Vietnam. Wonder if we'll wait until 58,000 of our young Americans' lives have been pissed away before we decide to "gracefully" withdraw...like we did in Vietnam??

 

[nate45]

So, no WMD, no Al Qaeda and no link to terrorism, that leaves us with... wait why are we there again?

Primarily to protect Israel. Oil was a very secondary reason.

Thats right like it or not in addition to the $3 Billion in military aid and a total of close to $150 billion in other aid we give to Israel each year(a country who by the way is the 14th richest in the world) we have now spent over $1 trillion and over 3000 American lives defending.

Iraq was not a threat to the U.S., it was however a threat to Israel.

They have had marginal success selling the public Iraq in numerous ways, but somehow I don't think the real truth would have sold at all.

If you do a little checking you find that while Iraq was not connected with Al Qaeda, the were however connected with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the people who are carrying out suicide bombings in Israel.

Iraqs missiles and biological weapons or possible nuclear weapons could never reach the U.S, they could however reach Israel.

As Redworm noted the genocide in Darfur is not worth intervention, the 800,000 dead in Rawanda was not worth intervention, a host of other countries that are oppressed and under tyranny are also not deemed being worth interventon.

Now my question to all of you: Is protecting Israel worth $1 trillion and over 3000 American lives?

and don't forget Israel wasn't under attack there was only the possibility they might be attacked.

 

[Fremmer]

Didn't Saddam shoot a bunch of missles at Israel?

 

[Creature]

He also gassed the Kurds in Northern Iraq. Chemical weapons are WMD in my book.

 

[Beretta686]

uncivilized tribal savage brothers

Doesn't sounds like you've ever been......

The average Iraqi really just wants to live their live's without the fear of getting blown up, kiddnaped & their head cut off or shot for belonging to the "wrong" fan club of Allah.

Plenty of times everyday Iraqis give us intel, report bombs (my buddy's life was saved by an Iraqi telling him there was an ambush on his platoon's route & two Apaches ruined their day. hehehehe). Their not all savages.

The problem is the extremists who take their Koran seriously and believe it is the literal word of Allah.


As for the war..........

It was a dumb idea to start with, but the execution was botched also. Rather than sending in people who knew what they were doing, our glorious leader sent in party hacks who just wanted to get their ticket punched.

They fired that Gardner guy who wasn't some neo-con ideologue and replaced him with that idiot Paul Bremer who had no clue other than to arrogently crow rather than getting involved and really doing what needs to get done ("America...F*CK YEAH!....."). First thing he does is disband the Iraqi Army and send them all home with no pay, no respect, no nothing BUT with their weapons and doesn't take into account that Iraq is awash in weapons. What the hell else did we expect?

 

[Alleykat]

Doesn't sounds like you've ever been......

I was only referring to his "uncivilized tribal savage brothers." There's nothing in Iraq that's worth the life of one American, in my humble opinion.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

I know this is stating the obvious at least for people who aren't and weren't brainwashed by the Bush fear machine.

ALL government reports are lies, unless of course, you happen across one that agrees with your opinion.

 

[Playboypenguin]

When the war started a friend of my believed all the lies and especially the ones where we would be greeted as liberators, the war would be over quickly, free flowing Iraqi oil would lower gas prices, and oil revenues would pay for the war.

He now owes me $100 as of last week.

I made him a bet that tax payers would foot the multi-billions of dollars bill for the war, that we would be there for at least four years, and that gas would reach prices of at least $3.50 before we left Iraq. Tax payers have been paying the bill and gas hit $3.50 here last week per gallon of regular.

1) Hindsight is 20/20

And tunnel vision is never a good things. When we allow leaders to see what they want to without question, for fear of being branded anti troop or un-American, we fail in our duties as a citizen.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

I never did understand the argument that we invaded for their oil. If we did, why is gas $3.50/gal? Looks like if we were stealing their oil, it would be cheaper now.

 

[toybox99615]

no getting out with honor

regardless of McCain's bravado there will be no leaving Iraq with the type of honor he proposes. (Maybe he can actually tell us what he means by his with honor statement cause I sure don't know what he thinks leaving with honor is.) The next president is going to inherit this gigantic cluster show we have been in and continue to stay in. Baring some massive international incident where the US has to just up and move to another location (say an actual declaration of war by some other country) the troops will be there for years. The difference between the McCain plan and the others is John wants to stay there until we achieve honor while the rest face reality and say we did our part now lets come home.


Once we run a few more Generals and Admirals through the Bush plan and change presidents we might see some hopes for Iraq. Anyone keeping count of how many we have had in change who "retired" when they coincidentally had different thoughts than the administration on what should be done or how the plan had problems.

 

[madmag]

I am not surprised by the report. I was against the war way before it started. I never understood, and still don't, how we got from going after Bin Laden and then changing over to Hussein. The war with Iraq was a dumb move, and this report just supports my fears. It was clear that Bush was on a path to this war, he wanted it, and I am an ex Bush supporter making that statement.

I guess if you can find any good it is that Hussein was a murderer, and we saved some lives by removing him from power. Of course the cost was 3000 plus of our own troops lives. IMO, not a good tradeoff.

Remember the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. He said if I only had a brain. I think that could make Bush's Presidential epitaph. "If I only had a brain".

 

[Playboypenguin]

I guess if you can find any good it is that Hussein was a murderer, and we saved some lives by removing him from power. Of course the cost was 3000 plus of our own troops lives. IMO, not a good tradeoff.

And it would be easy to argue that even more of them have died as a result of this war than would have died under Hussein. Then you have to remember that that 3,000 dead troops pales in comparison to the number of maimed troops that lived and not face life as an invalid or handicapped.

 

[Playboypenguin]

I never did understand the argument that we invaded for their oil. If we did, why is gas $3.50/gal? Looks like if we were stealing their oil, it would be cheaper now.

You don't drive up the price of your product by creating an abundant and cheap source of the materials. You drive it up by disrupting the flow and then you can raise prices and make more money for less work. If you get free flowing cheap materials you have to lower prices and work more to produce more goods.

 

[toybox99615]

oil connection

the premise that the Iraq war is over oil is not founded on getting cheap oil to Americans. It based on the concept that the oil supply would be controlled and the profits gained by the insiders involved.

 

[ZeroJunk]

I wish I could find a conspiracy in any of this. It would be better than my conclusion which is that George Bush is simply as dumb as a stick of wood.