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A War's Worth

Stockpiles of WMD have not been found in Iraq, so that is giving rise to questions about whether the war with Iraq was justified. But people tend to forget that the U.N.'s Resolution 1441 put the burden on Saddam Hussein to come clean about the WMD, and not on the U.S. or anyone else to find them.

Right up until the day the first bullets flew, Saddam was refusing to let his scientists give unfettered interviews to weapons inspectors, was hassling the U.N. over surveillance overflights and was hiding his plans to re-start large scale WMD programs once sanctions were lifted.

And then there's the nexus between Iraq and al Qaeda.

According to the 9/11 Commission's Report:

In March 1998, after Bin Ladin's public fatwa against the United States, two al Qaeda members reportedly went to Iraq to meet with Iraqi intelligence. In July, an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan to meet first with the Taliban and then with Bin Ladin. Sources reported that one, or perhaps both, of these meetings was apparently arranged through Bin Ladin's Egyptian deputy, Zawahiri, who had ties of his own to the Iraqis. In 1998, Iraq was under intensifying U.S. pressure, which culminated in a series of large air attacks in December.

Similar meetings between Iraqi officials and Bin Ladin or his aides may have occurred in 1999 during a period of some reported strains with the Taliban. According to the reporting, Iraqi officials offered Bin Ladin a safe haven in Iraq.

Read that again. Saddam offered Bin Laden safe haven in Iraq, after Bin Laden declared war on the U.S.

Was the war worth it? Here's another question: If Saddam was so eager to thumb his nose at the U.N. and help out Osama bin Laden, was it avoidable?

By Ed Moltzen  ·  13 January 2005
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