Bill Clinton Iraq Attack Made Invasion Necessary

Those who talk about the Second Iraq War, The WMD War, seem to have forgotten  that the war began during Bill Clinton's administration rather than George W. Bush's administration.

Clinton began the war late in 1998 either because he didn't think Saddam Hussein was adequately cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors or to distract attention from his impeachment.  The bombing of Iraq was just as much a declaration of war as Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 had been a Japanese declaration of war against the United States.   American bombing of Iraqi targets continued after 1998 in areas designated "no fly zones" for Iraqi aircraft.  The U.S. was still at war with Iraq on 9/11/2001.   It is for this reason that it was logical for President Bush  to ask if Iraq might have been responsible for the attack.

Regardless of the reason for the attack,  Clinton's request that the inspectors leave so they wouldn't be hurt by the bombing meant Saddam no longer had to worry about U.N. inspectors exposing any work on Weapons of Mass Destruction.   The rest of the world had no way of knowing if he started rebuilding his nerve gas stockpile or developing other WMD.

After the 9/11 attack demonstrated the total inadequacy of western intelligence about the Muslim world, President George W, Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair developed a legitimate concern that Saddam Hussein might have redeveloped, or even expanded, his WMD programs.   They also had to take seriously rumors that Hussein might form an alliance with America's new enemy al Qaeda.   It is common for those who face a common enemy to become allies. 

President Bush began an effort to restart the U.N. weapons inspections, but Iraq resisted.   When Iraq finally allowed inspectors in, they found that in the time after the inspector's departure in 1998 and their return in 2003 Iraq had acquired rockets that it was illegal for Iraq to have as well as nerve gas shells that had not yet been loaded.

Bush once again tried to get adequate assurances about inspections and destruction of any weapons programs.  Because of the climate in Iraq the United States had only a small amount of time to take military action before weather conditions would have inhibited military action.   When Bush could not get adequate assurances he had to order the invasion of  Iraq.

The invasion discovered evidence of    WMD   programs in Iraq.  CNN reported in June, 2003, that parts and plans for a nuclear gas centrifuge had been found under a rose bush.

Richard Miniter in his book, "Disinformation" lists the following as examples of WMD related discoveries.

  "• Found: 1.77 metric tons of enriched uranium

• Found: 1,500 gallons of chemical weapons

• Found: Roadside bomb loaded with sarin gas

• Found: 1,000 radioactive materials--ideal for radioactive dirty bombs

• Found: 17 chemical warheads--some containing cyclosarin, a nerve agent five times more powerful than sarin."