It looks like Saddam Hussein was well on his way to striking a deal with Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan for the Big One before his army got rolled up in 1991:
At the time of the 1990 offer, Iraq was embarked in a crash program to develop nuclear weapons in the face of a threatened U.S.-led attack over its occupation of Kuwait. By that date, Iraqi scientists had acquired a limited amount of weapons-grade enriched uranium but lacked several key components, including a workable design for a small nuclear warhead.
Fears that Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program helped propel the United States into a second war with Iraq in 2003, though a U.S. review later determined that Hussein was never able to mount a serious bid for the bomb after 1991.
Aid from the Pakistani scientist could have accelerated Iraq’s quest for a weapon if the Iraqi leader had not run out of time, writes Albright, a former U.N. inspector who now heads the nonprofit Institute for Science and International Security. One memo cited in the book promised to provide “all the vital components and materials” needed to make fissile material, and added that “two to three Pakistani scientists could be persuaded to resign and join the new assignment” in Iraq. Copies of the original Arabic documents — several with handwritten comments in the margins — were shown to The Washington Post.
Alternate histories are a kind of child’s game – anyone can get in – but in 2001, the regime of UN-imposed sanctions on Iraq were collapsing under the weight of a brutalized population even as the Ba’athist tyrant built for himself pleasure domes. “Smart sanctions” went nowhere, opposed in Paris and Berlin.
So I have to wonder, where would we be, if we were not here?
And where would we be, if we had listened to the chattering classes?
Where would she be? Dead? Raped? Starving? Enslaved?
I’ve been sayin’ it, I’ve been sayin’ it for 10 d**n years… (Randy Quaid in Independence day.)
That’s what I think GWB will be saying. And to all those people who like to say Iraq never had Weapons of Mass Destruction, asked all those Iranians and Kurds who got hit with poison gas what they think.
1991, aboard USS _______ giving a tour to Saudi Air Force and Naval officers. One asked about nukes to which the standard ‘The US Navy can neither confirm nor deny” was given. A Col asked “do you really feel protected by weapons you would never use? We would not be under the same compunction”.
Have fissile materials, will travel. Nice calling card.
The proper response to the “Do you really feel protected…” comment is
“Well, you should ask Imperial Japan about that.”
Frm the T. Friedman piece
UN? Obama Team? BIDEN???
Well, ok, to their credit, they went ahead and carried out the plans that Pres. Bush put in place.
Joe,
The victors always get to write the His-story.
G-man, shouldn’t that be ‘re-write’?
Well technically maybe, but the only things people will really remember are the ones they really want to remember! In 20 yrs the MSM will be espousing his One-ness in the same vein as JFK – a re-kindling of Camelot. Savior of the Arab psyche, the One that gave them a REAL seat at the world’s pantheon of nations, the One that brought eternal peace to palestine (ok, we’ll give that one to Biden). Barnes and Noble will be filled with face out books extolling Obama’s greatness, whilst poor GWB is spined out and relegated to the bottom shelf.
Ah, just like “Honest” Abe, you say.
G-Man – I’ve alread seen the plethora of face out books of The One. Every chance I get…I turn them face in. It’s my own small, private middle finger.
You are baaaaad, so bad, but I love it! You’ll cause some poor book stocker grief. “Honest, ma’am, I stocked those shelves just like you told me.”
Kris, that is funny, and a great idea.
Hey, after all, Gandhi would agree with your non-violent protest, would he not?
Regards,
Now that you mention it, Kris, I’d be tempted to take all the One’s books & refile them in the New Age section.
G-M…I maintain the jury is still out on that..
Speaking of Slow Joe Biden (which is kind of like speaking about that colonscopy you just had–both are painful subjects).
Slow Joe went down to Israel to “improve relations with our allies”. Or so reported the Los Angeles Times this morning.
And you know what? Even though Joe had gone down their, those rascally Israelis announced the building of another housing settlement shortly after meeting with Joe. The ingratitude!
What the Lost Angeles Times (aka the lefty doofus review) did not mention was that Slow Joe was deliberately 90 minutes late to a state dinner that had been planned for him; and managed to insult Netanyahu while he was at the dinner. We didn’t get that part of the story of our nuanced diplomacy at all from the Times. I’m surprised the Israelis did not decide to nuke Iran.
Lex, very nice post.
The picture of the Iraqi lady is evocative of the hope that so many have for Iraq to turn their country (however it turns out) into a stable and positive member of the world community.
I think they’ll be happy if Iraq simply turns out to be stable and positive on its own. The first victims of a tyrant are his own people.
QM, yeah, that is more accurate.
My basic thought was that they not provide support for terrorists.
Oh, I have no doubt that Saddam was up to no good before BOTH invasions. He was also very good at covering his tracks, making it hard to provide proof after the fact. It’s about G-D time the truth starts leaking out!
Whatever happened to the ~500 barrels of degraded 80s-vintage chemicals that we *did* find? ISTR that they were initially dismissed as being “old stuff, doesn’t count”, and then you never heard boo about them.
So, the Beeb is saying that they had a 62% turn out – with death threats, bombs, having to walk to the polls, and other hardships.
That is about what we had in Nov. 08, wasn’t it?
One memo cited in the book promised to provide “all the vital components and materials” needed to make fissile material…
Meaning those Pak-1 gas centrifuges we found in 2004 — pooh-poohed by the Lefties as “pharmaceutical machinery” — identical to those Iran’s been using?
Or maybe the 500 metric tons of yellowcake that Joe Wilson insisted Saddam wasn’t shopping for, that the MSM in the US never reported we found, and that was shipped to Canada for reprocessing last year?
And the A.Q. Khan connection may not have been severed in 1991. I know several Iraqi officers who were in Pakistan as late as 1998, and they didn’t go there for the tandoori chicken…
[stern note to self: remember to close the code after the quote]
Truth is a lonely word. Oh, wait, that’s dirty bird. Peace dog. Honesty is the lonely word.
A couple of things, Lex:
1) You’re right
2) But it doesn’t matter because if the media doesn’t cover it, it doesn’t matter
3) The last two decades in the Congo make Iraq look like the first act of the Nutcracker.
4) See number two.