PrintOctober 25, 2010
Wikileaks proves WMD found in Iraq
This is not surprising news to anyone not predisposed to call President Bush a liar about WMD.
Ed Morrissey:
In this case, the surprise isn't the data but the source. Wikileaks' new release from purloined files of the Department of Defense may help remind people that, contrary to popular opinion and media memes, the US did find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and in significant quantities. While the invasion of Iraq didn't find huge stockpiles of new WMDs, it did uncover stockpiles that the UN had demanded destroyed as a condition of the 1991 truce that Saddam Hussein abrogated for twelve years.
Glenn Reynolds:
I SAID BEFORE THAT WIKILEAKS' JULIAN ASSANGE WAS CLEARLY A TOOL, BUT WHOSE? Well, so far the two biggest scoops from the latest document dump are that the infamous Lancet study was bogus, and that WMDs were found in Iraq in quantity. Neither of these stories is actually news to people who were paying attention, but now - conveniently enough just before an election, and even nicely timed for George W. Bush's new book release - these stories are getting a fresh round of play. . . .
The Lancet studies on Iraqi deaths, one released the weekend before the 2004 election, the second released less than a week before the 2006 election, not only wildly overestimated Iraqi deaths from the war, they smeared the US military. The civilian casualties were horrific but nowhere near what those two bogus studies purported to show.
As for WMD, no new weapons were found but the fact that there was so much of it still in Iraq after the UN was supposed to have gotten rid of it is significant. Don't expect any apologies from the rest of the world or even any acknowledgment that they were wrong. The narrative is set and nothing will change it.
