by Scott Ritter
It appears that the last vestiges of perceived legitimacy regarding the
decision of President George Bush and Tony Blair to invade Iraq have been
eliminated with the release this week of the Iraq Survey Group's final
report on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The report's author, Charles
Duelfer, underscored the finality of what the world had come to accept in
the 18 months since the invasion of Iraq - that there were no stockpiles of
WMD, or programmes to produce WMD. Despite public statements made before the
war by Bush, Blair and officials and pundits on both sides of the Atlantic
to the contrary, the ISG report concludes that all of Iraq's WMD stockpiles
had been destroyed in 1991, and WMD programmes and facilities dismantled by
1996. . . .
The ultimate condemnation of the failure and futility of the US-UK effort in
Iraq is that if Saddam were released from his prison cell and participated
in the elections scheduled for next January, there is a good chance he would
emerge as the popular choice. . . .
The true goal wasn't disarmament, but regime change. This,of course, clashed
with the principles of international law set forth in the Security Council
resolutions, voted on by the US and UK, and to which Saddam was ostensibly
held to account. Economic sanctions, put in place by the UN in 1990 after
Saddam's invasion of Iraq and continued in 1991, linked to Saddam's
obligation to disarm, were designed to compel Iraq to comply with the
Security Council's requirements. Saddam did disarm, but since two members of
that Security Council - the US and the UK - were implementing unilateral
policies of regime change as opposed to disarmament, this compliance could
never be recognised. . . .
To buy into the notion that the world is better off without Saddam, one
would have to conclude that the framework of international law that held the
world together since the end of the Second World War - the UN Charter - is
antiquated and no longer viable in a post-9/11 world. Tragically, we can see
the fallacy of that argument unfold on a daily basis, as the horrific
ramifications of American and British unilateralism unfold across the globe.
If there ever was a case to be made for a unified standard of law governing
the interaction of nations, it is in how we as a global community prosecute
the war on terror. . . .
FULL TEXT
"White House 'Lied About Saddam
Threat'," The Wisdom Fund, July 10, 2003
Julian Borger, "The Spies Who Pushed
for War," The Guardian, July 17, 2003
"Iraq War: Bush Lied and the Media Didn't Tell
You," The Wisdom Fund, February 1, 2004
"Iraq War: Liars or Fools?," The Wisdom Fund,
February 9, 2004
John Pilger, The Media's Culpability for Iraq,
Antiwar.com, October 1, 2004
[Duelfer believes that Iraq destroyed its WMD in the summer of 1991, and
finds nothing to document any programmes after that time.--Hans Blix, "If you had seen what I have seen," Independent, October 10, 2004]
[Bush and other U.S. officials cited the grave threat posed by Iraq's
chemical and biological weapons and Baghdad's efforts to acquire a nuclear
arms capability as a central justification for the March 2003 invasion of
Iraq. No such weapons have been found.--Will Dunham, "U.S. Wraps Up Search
for Banned Weapons in Iraq," Reuters, January 12, 2005]
[THE head of MI6 told Tony Blair the case for going to war in Iraq was a US
"fix" months before the invasion, it was claimed last night.
Sir Richard Dearlove warned "facts and intelligence" were being fixed by the
Bush administration back in July 2002, the BBC's Panorama documentary
said.--Rosa Prince, "MI6 TOLD BLAIR: AMERICA FIXED CASE FOR WAR", Mirror, March 21,
2005]
Rupert Cornwell, "WMD
verdict: 'Dead wrong'", Independent, April 1, 2005
David Corn, "WMD
Commission Continues the Stonewall for Bush", Guardian, April 1, 2005
[There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There was no serious and
current threat, no real and present danger that could justify a war of self
defence under international law or the UN Charter.
The Prime Minister and the President denied the UN weapons inspectors the
time and resources they needed to finish the job. Military action was
neither proportionate nor the last resort. Regime change was as illegal in
2003 under Article 2 of the UN charter as it would have been in the Gulf War
of 1991.--Menzies Campbell, "
Judgment day at last on Iraq", Observer, April 24, 2005]
Dana Priest, "Report Finds No Evidence Syria Hid Iraqi Arms",
Washington Post, April 26, 2005
VIDEO:
Scott Ritter, Seymour Hersh, "Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence
Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein," Nation Books
(October 10, 2005)
MOVIE: Danny Schecter, "WMD:
Weapons of Mass Deception", Fall 2005