Okay, so WMDs wasn't the issue after all...

There's moving the goal posts, and then there's moving to an entirely different stadium. In a different city. Playing a different sport.

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was justified in part because Saddam Hussein retained scientists capable of building nuclear weapons, Washington's top arms control official said Thursday.

In an interview with The Associated Press, John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, said that whether Saddam's regime actually possessed weapons of mass destruction "isn't really the issue."

"The issue I think has been the capability that Iraq sought to have ... WMD programs," Bolton said at the U.S. Embassy in Paris.

So apparently, any country with the misfortune of having physicists within its borders may now face the wrath of the US military.

And WMDs aren't "really the issue".

"Except that...

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." -- Cheney

"There is already a mountain of evidence that Saddam Hussein is gathering weapons for the purpose of using them. And adding additional information is like adding a foot to Mount Everest." -- Fleischer

"After eleven years during which we have tried containment, sanctions, inspections, even selected military action, the end result is that Saddam Hussein still has chemical and biological weapons and is increasing his capabilities to make more. And he is moving ever closer to developing a nuclear weapon." -- Bush

"If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world." -- Fleischer

Etc.

(Citations and more quotes here -- thanks to Billmon for digging them up and Lunaville for preserving them.)

Posted September 05, 2003 10:34 AM | Comments (75)