Saddam's Bluff
It occurs to me that certain readers who are not already members of the Blame America First club would object to my post on Juan Cole and Jonah Goldberg.
Specifically, Jonah Goldberg had shrugged off the missing WMD by saying "we called Saddam's bluff." Outraged, I asked if people really thought that Saddam had said, "I have WMD, so you better invade Iraq to disarm me!"
Now the fair and equitable reader might say, "C'mon Murphy, chill out! Obviously what Goldberg meant was that Saddam was saying, 'Don't invade me, Great Satan, because I have WMD and will gas your infidel troops!' And because Bush and Rumsfeld couldn't pass the buck like that wimp Clinton, they decided to be men and take the risk of disarming that fiend."
OK, if that's what you think, I see where you're coming from. But the problem with that is, our alleged reason for invading Iraq was the WMD. So it makes no sense to say Saddam was "bluffing" us in order to give us a reason to invade him!!
(And of course, just to remind everyone, Iraq was saying that they had disarmed before the invasion, and were inviting inspectors in. So again I ask, how was Saddam "bluffing" when he said he didn't have WMD, and then it turns out that, well, he didn't have WMD?)
Specifically, Jonah Goldberg had shrugged off the missing WMD by saying "we called Saddam's bluff." Outraged, I asked if people really thought that Saddam had said, "I have WMD, so you better invade Iraq to disarm me!"
Now the fair and equitable reader might say, "C'mon Murphy, chill out! Obviously what Goldberg meant was that Saddam was saying, 'Don't invade me, Great Satan, because I have WMD and will gas your infidel troops!' And because Bush and Rumsfeld couldn't pass the buck like that wimp Clinton, they decided to be men and take the risk of disarming that fiend."
OK, if that's what you think, I see where you're coming from. But the problem with that is, our alleged reason for invading Iraq was the WMD. So it makes no sense to say Saddam was "bluffing" us in order to give us a reason to invade him!!
(And of course, just to remind everyone, Iraq was saying that they had disarmed before the invasion, and were inviting inspectors in. So again I ask, how was Saddam "bluffing" when he said he didn't have WMD, and then it turns out that, well, he didn't have WMD?)
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