Iraq submits weapon report.........

[markuskidd]

etech, there is no reason you have provided why the US has to wait to translate the report. And you haven't explained why Iraq wouldn't have used their super secret hiding places for WMD already if they have them. You.... lose.

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: markuskidd
etech, there is no reason you have provided why the US has to wait to translate the report. And you haven't explained why Iraq wouldn't have used their super secret hiding places for WMD already if they have them. You.... lose.

non declared WMD would be in the super secret hiding places.....

 

[markuskidd]

I'm not sure you're up to date on this recent topic in the thread... basically, etech is saying that if we let the UN inspectors know where the WMD are (and, according to him, we do know) then Iraq will move them to some super secret spot where we'll never be able to find them. Or something like that. I figure, if they've got such a spot, they've already moved the weapons there and we might as well get our guys in Iraq looking around before whatever's left is also moved.

Of course, I don't really think the super secret spot theory has much going for it anyway. We should just tell the inspectors where we think they are and move along with this. The Iraqis have officially said "We don't have them." We have officially said "Yes, you do." So lets get going with this. Even if we learn something new from the reports, there's no reason not to have the inspectors scouting out weapons we have intel on at the moment.

 

[etech]

Originally posted by: markuskidd
etech, there is no reason you have provided why the US has to wait to translate the report. And you haven't explained why Iraq wouldn't have used their super secret hiding places for WMD already if they have them. You.... lose.

wall, beating head against it now.

One last time oh little dense one. After this I refuse to play you little games any more.

The US has to wait to see what is declared in the report. This is not just about whether Saddam has weapons he said he would get rid of. It's whether his regime has changed so that they will not just go back to making them in the future. If Saddam lies and hides his weapons then he is in violation of the cease fire he signed at the end of the Gulf War. More importantly he has shown that he has ulterior motives for acquiring those weapons or he would not employ the subterfuge to have them Iraq has been under severe sanctions since the Gulf War greatly limiting the money they have. If Saddam would rather starve his people to put the money into weapons it shows that he is not committed to peace but would rather practice war again. Now if those sanctions are lifted and he is the same dictator hellbent on invading and destablizing the Middle East as he has proven himself in the past, what could he do with billions of dollars? He could finally start his 'mother of all wars'.

To sum it up. The US had to see what was in the report to see what was declared. The report arrived yesterday. The comparison must be made between what is in the report and what he actually has to determine whether he is the same old Saddam just waiting to get his hands on something that will go boom with a bang heard around the world or whether he really wants to live in peace with all of his neighbors which includes both Kuwait and Israel.

If he is the same old Saddam, now is the time to take care of him. If the world waits while he rearms and acquires more weapons then it may be too late for billions of people. It is way past time for the world to move on to peace and dealing with other problems. It may sound contradictory but it may take a war to accomplish peace. It has in the past.

Got it?

 

[markuskidd]

I hope the translaters who are working on the report have a higher level of reading comprehension than you do, or we may be in a whole lot of trouble. Case closed for me.

 

[Gaard]

You have to admit, markuskidd has a point. If members on ATOT can think "The US is just waiting to come clean with the evidence until we can be certain Iraq can't move/hide the WMD" don't you think somebody over there can have the same thought and have the WMDs moved already?

Fact - Iraq says they have no WMD.
Fact - We say we have solid, rockhard evidence that they do.

Question - What difference does it make if we play our trump card now or later?


etech - <<Dang, Gaard, you must have been reading the news reports. That's what is in them.>>
I haven't seen them, but I'm going to assume the reports that you speak of simply state that we are cooperating with the inspectors. Right?


etech - <<The point to be made also of course is- Saddam promised to rid his country of that type of weapons to the U.N as one of the conditions of the cease fire of the Gulf War. If he breaks that agreement than the ceasefire is also null and void. The Gulf War is then still on. This is not the start of a new war. I'm going to repeat that because so many seem to fail to understand that simple little fact. This is not the start of a new war. This is about Saddam not complying with the terms of the Gulf war cease fire.>>
Just to nitpick, but does this mean that won't refer to this as something else...we'll still call it the Gulf War?

 

[MadRat]

If Iraq has nuclear material then its easy enough for them to map out the locations from the air. You cannot easily shield this radiation. They can bury it a mile down and some of the radiation will leak enough to locate it. Its not all gamma and beta particles emitted from radioactive decay, there are other traces to detect. The real danger is his chemical weapons. Saddam has never accounted for more than 300,000 of over half a million chemical despoilment shells alone. His air-dropped bombs and scud missile warheads equipped for chemical and nerve agents were never officially counted. This doesn't even include the chemical spray equipment that vanished before the original inspectors hit the scene a decade ago.