2004-02-15

The war criminals on the defensive

Reuters is reporting that Secretary of State Colin Powell said "no apologies" were needed for intelligence used to justify the Iraq invasion.

A year ago, on Feb. 5, Powell made a dramatic presentation to the U.N. Security Council, arguing that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and was reconstructing its nuclear arms program as well as building advanced missiles.

"I don't think any apologies are necessary," he said when asked about the quality of intelligence used during his unsuccessful attempt to persuade council members of the need to invade Iraq.

Powell said President Bush 's action to go to war, was totally justified by the information that he was provided. "We don't have to worry about now is whether there are any weapons of mass destruction or a Saddam Hussein in Iraq to use them," he said.

Bush is scrambling to limit the political fallout after the former chief U.S. weapons hunter David Kay concluded that prewar intelligence about Iraq's having stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction was wrong.

"We said that this was a regime led by a dictator who had every intention of keeping his weapons-of-mass-destruction programs going, and anyone who thinks he didn't is just dead wrong. And there is no evidence to suggest that that was an incorrect judgment, Powell said.

Powell later accused critics of politicizing the U.S. failure to find weapons of mass destruction said it is getting on his nerves.

"Yeah, it does get on your nerves when you see people trying to use this for straightforward political purposes Powell told Fox television.

This is disgusting. So what he's saying is "move along folks, there's nothing to see here." We're not supposed to be critical because it is getting on his nerves? They lied and now they are caught in the web. The only way justice could be done is to bring the soldiers home and turn Bush and friends loose on the streets of Iraq, unarmed. Let them explain their actions to the people of Iraq and let the Iraqis respond as they see fit. That would be justice... or at least one part of justice.