Saddam's Chemical Weapons

Status Report:

Saddam's Chemical Weapons :  Existed, sold to him by the US / European companies, covered up by Pentagon at the cost of their own soldier's health due to potential embarrassment.

My cynicism : Undiminished.

BBC :

Mr Davis said it appeared the Bush administration had "threatened" the UK government about the repercussions should details of the case be made public.

"Frankly it is none of their business what our courts do," he said, adding this was "plain fact" not merely an allegation.

"They should not seek in any circumstances to put pressure on British courts. That's completely beyond the rule of law."

Bob Cesca :

Instead of compassion, reason, rationality and inspiration tempered with humility -- traits evident in the crisis-handling of other presidents -- we can easily recall self-indulgence, dangerous pride and indignity; sloganeering and exploitation in lieu of positive words and deeds -- words and deeds which so many of President Bush's predecessors have managed to summon under similar duress.

So in the face of a well-funded and high profile revisionist crusade, one of the most important tasks of our generation will be to preserve the real legacy -- the legitimate history -- of the Bush administration, and especially the sheer mediocrity of President Bush's immediate response, and utterly destructive long term reaction to September 11.

While everyone's side-tracked on the new US election and recession, let's not forget this, shall we?

The real issue here is that there's going to be a huge temptation for people who went along with Bush, or were enthusiastic supporters, to try to brush this aside saying "oh well, we weren't to know then" and "this is all academic because now Bush is on his way out."

It's not fucking academic! The same system, the same propaganda machinery, the same values, the same hidden agendas, the same media owners who hyped this up, the same public ignorance that let so many people find these stories plausible ... all the same conditions are all still operant.

Won't get fooled again? Sure you will.

I have a new theory about George Bush. Having fucked up the world badly in his own presidency, he's now trying to stir up as much trouble as possible to leave to his successor, maybe in the hope that he'll look less bad in comparison.

So, Bush may want to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, but thinks it's worth tweaking the tail of the Russians by stationing missiles next door and turning down their offer of collaboration on a genuine anti-Iranian military project. Predictable result : more Russian / Iranian co-operation, higher-probability of Russian nuclear expertise getting to Iran, lower probability of Russian diplomatic support for sanctions against Iran. Meanwhile, he's trying to hurry along the breakup of Serbia (unpopular with both Serbs and Russians) that may re-ignite war in Kosovo.

There's also recent talk that the US military in Iraq will retreat into Kurdistan with obvious issues for US / Turkish relations, starting, er, now.