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Originally posted by phyzix525
I agree with onetime. Because we were atacked by terrorists means we need to go after them before they attack us again. That is why we went after saddam, someone who wants to attack america. He was an imediate threat. 911 only made it obvious we needed to do something.
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I can grab some quick quotes from Colin Powell in early 2001 that state categorically that Iraq was contained by sanctions and not a threat to anyone but the Iraqi population. The tune changed after 9-11 as the Neocons saw that they now had a pretense to invade Iraq, a favorite daydream of theirs.
edit: OK, here's what Rumsfeld had to say on Face the Nation when faced with the "immediate threat" allegation....obviously, they are not pushing that idea anymore:
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SCHIEFFER: Well, let me just ask you this. If they did not have these weapons of mass destruction, though, granted all of that is true, why then did they pose an immediate threat to us, to this country?
Sec. RUMSFELD: Well, you're the--you and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase `immediate threat.' I didn't. The president didn't. And it's become kind of folklore that that's--that's what's happened. The president went...
SCHIEFFER: You're saying that nobody in the administration said that.
Sec. RUMSFELD: I--I can't speak for nobody--everybody in the administration and say nobody said that.
SCHIEFFER: Vice president didn't say that? The...
Sec. RUMSFELD: Not--if--if you have any citations, I'd like to see 'em.
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And here are the Powell quotes that I mentioned earlier:
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Pasted from: http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0217-12.htm
“We have been able to keep weapons from going into Iraq,” Powell said during a Feb 11, 2001 interview with “Face the Nation. “We have been able to keep the sanctions in place to the extent that items that might support weapons of mass destruction development have had some controls on them… it's been quite a success for ten years…”
Moreover, during a meeting with Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister, in February 2001 on how to deal with Iraq, Powell said the U.N., the U.S. and its allies “have succeeded in containing Saddam Hussein and his ambitions.”
Saddam’s “forces are about one-third their original size. They don't really possess the capability to attack their neighbors the way they did ten years ago,” Powell said during the meeting with Fischer, a transcript of which can be found at http://www.usembassy-israel.org.il/...ry/me0222a.html
“Containment has been a successful policy, and I think we should make sure that we continue it until such time as Saddam Hussein comes into compliance with the agreements he made at the end of the (Gulf) war.”
Powell added that Iraq is “not threatening America.”
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