Sanctions and Containment Work

Skip past the first few paragraphs – this Slate article offers a neat summary of all the damning revelations this week. Conclusion?

“The sanctions were working; they were keeping Saddam Hussein in his box.”

Following closed hearings today where Charles A. Duelfer, the author of the latest report which categorically removed once and for all the Bush administration’s reasons for going into Iraq, Senate Intelligence Committee member Senator John D. Rockefeller said:

“The administration would like the American public to believe that Saddam’s intention to build a weapons program, regardless of actual weapons or the capability to produce weapons, justified invading Iraq. In fact, we invaded a country, thousands of people have died, and Iraq never posed a grave or growing danger.”

Its interesting to note that the author of the report is clearly more sympathetic to the Bush administration yet was unable to find any facts to twist in favour of the Iraq invaders. Feeling vindicated no doubt is former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who resigned from the task pre-war claiming at that time that it was pointless to go on since the Bush admin was going to war regardless of anything UN inspectors had reported. I still remember seeing the hatchet job the Bush administration did on Ritter at that time.

Keep lining up the dots and the inescapable conclusion is we were all lied to.

And on a purely mercenary note, imagine what could have been done with the 120 Billion already spent and the additional 80 Billion which will be spent in the next fiscal year and no doubt 50 – 100 Billion in each of the next several years. Its not hard to picture Iraq costing the US half a trillion dollars before all is said and done – and for what? Will a stable Middle East result?

Doesn’t seem likely at this point.