My response to some commenters on my comments page.

Commenter #1
George Bush didn't lie to take this country to war either. At worst it could be accurately said that he went to war based on mistaken intel. Intel that the entire world believed up un till it became politically convenient not to.

Commenter #2

The entire world except the millions of people who marched through world capitals because they knew it was bullshit. The entire world except the other three permanent members of the UN security council (other than US and UK). The entire world except Hans Blix, the UN Chief Weapons Inspector. No, the entire world did not believe this 'info', and unless Bush and Blair are terminally stupid, neither did they. Which means they lied.

Chemical weapons



The nerve agent VX is one of the most toxic ever developed.



Iraq has declared that it only produced VX on a pilot scale, just a few tonnes and that the quality was poor and the product unstable. Consequently, it was said, that the agent was never weaponised. Iraq said that the small quantity of agent remaining after the Gulf War was unilaterally destroyed in the summer of 1991.



UNMOVIC, however, has information that conflicts with this account. There are indications that Iraq had worked on the problem of purity and stabilization and that more had been achieved than has been declared. Indeed, even one of the documents provided by Iraq indicates that the purity of the agent, at least in laboratory production, was higher than declared.



There are also indications that the agent was weaponised. In addition, there are questions to be answered concerning the fate of the VX precursor chemicals, which Iraq states were lost during bombing in the Gulf War or were unilaterally destroyed by Iraq.



I would now like to turn to the so-called “Air Force document” that I have discussed with the Council before. This document was originally found by an UNSCOM inspector in a safe in Iraqi Air Force Headquarters in 1998 and taken from her by Iraqi minders. It gives an account of the expenditure of bombs, including chemical bombs, by Iraq in the Iraq-Iran War. I am encouraged by the fact that Iraq has now provided this document to UNMOVIC.



The document indicates that 13,000 chemical bombs were dropped by the Iraqi Air Force between 1983 and 1988, while Iraq has declared that 19,500 bombs were consumed during this period. Thus, there is a discrepancy of 6,500 bombs. The amount of chemical agent in these bombs would be in the order of about 1,000 tonnes. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, we must assume that these quantities are now unaccounted for.

Commenter #1
The Taliban in Afghanistan took power long after we left.



Commenter #2
Long after we left where? The US supported, funded and promoted the Taliban (then known as the Mujahadeen) because they were fighting the 'Communist Invaders'. It was US weapons and money that put the Taliban into power, it was US total disinterest in their human rights violations that kept them there.

Groups of taliban ("religious students") were loosely organized on a regional basis during the occupation and civil war. Although they represented a potentially huge force, they didn't emerge as a united entity until the taliban of Kandahar made their move in 1994. In late 1994, a group of well-trained taliban were chosen by Pakistan to protect a convoy trying to open a trade route from Pakistan to Central Asia. They proved an able force, fighting off rival mujahideen and warlords. The taliban then went on to take the city of Kandahar, beginning a surprising advance that ended with their capture of Kabul in September 1996.

By 1991-92, the US and the USSR finally reached an agreement that neither would continue to supply aid to any faction in Afghanistan. However, the numerous militant factions previously funded and armed by the US have been vying for supremacy. One of the armed Afghan factions funded by the CIA during this war was the Taliban, an apparently Islamic movement. With the departure of Soviet troops in 1989, these factions began vying with one another for supremacy, the Taliban eventually arising as the dominant force in Afghanistan. As a coherent politico-military faction or movement, the Taliban did not exist prior to October 1994, but were members of other factions such as Harakat-e Islami and Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi, or operated independently without a centralised command centre.

Commenter #1
Saddam took power long before we were interested. We did however give him some support during his war against Iran.

Commenter #2
The reason we thought he had WMD (if we did) was because WE SOLD IT TO HIM. The US and other Western powers sold chemical and biological agents and manufacturing equipment to Iraq, and various other military equipment. He was our friend, until we decided otherwise.

Nasty, dirty little dealings that have cost countless lives. And all based on lies and greed. It's disgusting.

'For evil to triumph requires only that good men do nothing'. GB is the only man in the world who could have averted the current evil. Even if he did not contribute to it, he did nothing to stop it. Not a very Christian person, then.

On July 16, 1979, President al-Bakr resigned and Saddam rose to the presidency. Five of his fellow members of the Revolutionary Command Council were quickly accused of involvement in a coup attempt and executed, along with 17 other rivals.

'For evil to triumph requires only that good men do nothing'. GB is the only man in the world who could have averted the current evil. Even if he did not contribute to it, he did nothing to stop it. Not a very Christian person, then.