Josh's Weblog: Duelfer Report

Duelfer Report

What you hear in the press and what really isin the Duelfer Report are probably wildly diverging. Let's look at some important issues after first pointing you to Fox News's copy of the summary.

The President said that the Duelfer report shows Saddam Hussein was gaming the system to get himself money. From the key findings on the first page of the summary we have these items:

He [Saddam Hussein] wanted to end sanctions while preserving the capability to reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) when sanctions were lifted.

Also,

By 2000–2001, Saddam had managed to mitigate many of the effects of sanctions and undermine their international support.

But the real shocker comes in the fact that while Saddam had no WMD, and no WMD program, it was a surprise to his top generals when he admitted it just before the war started.

This reminds me of the story of the man who complained about getting shot by a cop. He was asked, “Why did you point a gun at the cop?” The answer? “I wanted to scare him.” But when you scare a cop he doesn't run away, he deals with the threat.

The other shocker is that Saddam Hussein appears have bribed Jacques Chirac into voting against sanctions and war against Iraq.

Memos from Iraqi intelligence officials, recovered by American and British inspectors, show the dictator was told as early as May 2002 that France—having been granted oil contracts—would veto any American plans for war.

(Quote from news.scotsman.com via Captain's Quarters Blog.)

Captain Ed thinks this is a blow to the remaining credibility of the UN. I think it is also a blow to the credibility to Kerry's assertion that current coalition is a bad one, and Kerry's would be a good one. Well, who would be in Kerry's coalition that isn't in the current one? Which allies in our current coalition remain in Kerry's now that he has insulted many of them, including the Iraqi leaders and defense forces themselves?

Josh Poulson

Posted Thursday, Oct 7 2004 01:04 PM