
Iraq War: Gordon Brown Says UK 'misled' Over WMDs - farseer
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41872701
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pcrh
That's a bit revisionist. Millions of people were out demonstrating against
this war.

My own realization that people were being mislead was Colin Powell's speech at
the UN. The evidence he presented for WMD was so flimsy it was laughable. I'm
sure both Blair and Brown saw the same speech.

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mikeash
Hilariously ambiguous title. I assumed it meant that the UK misled people. But
no, it says they themselves were misled by the US.

All I can say to that is: lolwut. If it was obvious to me that the WMD story
was nonsense, surely the top minds of the United Kingdom could have figured it
out.

~~~
wybiral
> All I can say to that is: lolwut. If it was obvious to me that the WMD story
> was nonsense, surely the top minds of the United Kingdom could have figured
> it out.

I think it was slightly more complex because Iraq was refusing UN inspections
and because they did have a history of using illegal chemical weapons during
the Iran-Iraq War.

Interviews with Hussein (after he knew he was facing death) revealed that they
refused UN inspections because he was more concerned that Iran (their neighbor
and enemy) would see their vulnerabilities, which he perceived as a more
immediate threat than the US.

I don't know why the US was convinced that he had WMD in the first place
though. Hopefully there was more to it than just out of control hype that was
fed by Iraq refusing inspections.

~~~
mikeash
The situation was complex but the conclusion was ultimately pretty easy. It
was obvious that Bush et al were completely making stuff up.

Note that Iraq did resist inspections and didn't fully cooperate, but
inspectors did get in and inspected a lot, and this was ongoing when the Bush
administration brought it to a halt with the invasion.

~~~
wybiral
> The situation was complex but the conclusion was ultimately pretty easy. It
> was obvious that Bush et al were completely making stuff up.

It seems obvious that they were motivated to make a case for invading Iraq.
But that doesn't make it immediately obvious to me that they completely made
it up or that they weren't acting off of other intelligence.

Since we're on the subject of speculation, if I had to put my tin foil hat on
today I'd say that the invasion of Iraq had more to do with Iran (and their
allies) than Hussein.

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benevol
Not only is this yet another cheap lie.

The next war is also being sold already to US|UK|alliance citizens:
[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-
canada-41878123](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41878123)

------
Parcissons
I just watched a documentary on the roman empire. And you know what- it was
the same thing there. There leaders invented attack be foreign forces to
justify there campaigns, which was basically taking a massive warmachine to
pillage and enslave medieval countrys. And it was all in the name of self-
defense. To protect civilisation. To keep the life-style going. Every roman
citizen participating got his own little bribe as a soldier, or simply by
feeling better then the outsiders.

This guy should be send to Den Haag. So that this idea of universal justice
for once gets justice. Not just for those defeated. And there should be
something honor reducing to convicted warcriminals. Anyone related bearing the
family name of a convicted warcriminal should be forced to wear a black shawl
in public.

