Iraqi WMD – Afraid Not
The Mail are running with a story asking if an Iraqi WMD has been found.
They have been searching in Iraq for the past nine years, 10 months and 15 days.
Today, the hard work finally paid off as soldiers found one of those elusive ‘weapons of mass destruction’ that Saddam Hussein was supposed to have been hiding.
So is it all round to Tony Blair’s house for celebratory drinks?
Afraid not…
It appears to be a Silkworm or Seersucker anti ship missile, a Chinese made derivative of the Russian P15 Termit missile , although they have been used in the surface to surface role the missile itself is relatively simple and only has a high explosive warhead. It is difficult to make out the exact model from the picture but the damage would indicate being treated very roughly. The graffiti is in the under body slot where the booster rocket would be, raising questions about the circumstances surrounding its discovery.
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“They did find some…emphasis on some:-”
They found the odd stray round, they were always going to find that.
How often do you think the RAF misplaced its nuclear weapons? And they’ve never been used.
Iraq used chemical weapons extensivly for several years, that the odd one got lost is hardly surprising.
They said they had cast iron evidence of sustained, ongoing chemical and biological weapons production.
“Does having any chemical or bio weapons at all equate to weapons of MASS destruction?”
I think thats the ruling yes.
Generaly speaking we dont require nations to hold a certain level of aviation fuel, air to air weapons and spares before we say they have fast jet capability.
Does having any chemical or bio weapons at all equate to weapons of MASS destruction ? We knew Saddam had, or at least had some in the past, because the Yanks sold (gave it ?) to him ! He used ‘gas’ on his own people. We always stepped up NBC training for gulf deployments. But my point is, does being able to drop some nerve gas shells onto allied troops by artillery shell, or even to drop one or two Scuds on Israel constitute MASS DESTRUCTION ? Would Saddam not have needed Nukes (never mentioned), hundreds or thousands of tonnes of really bad Vx type nerve gas, or a sci-fi bio weapon to wage MASS DESTRUCTION on somebody. What systems did he have that would have been able to hit the UK with these fictional warheads ???
Honestly, I though we had all agreed it was all spin and BS, and even if Blair naively believed it was true, because someone told him it was, we had moved on…..
Hey it’s the mainstream press you canny expect them to be able to tell the difference between a simple low cost anti-shipping missile and something that could be a WMD or carry chemical or biological agents. Although the war in Iraq maybe had the least basis I believe it is the only war that is ‘winnable’ granted things would have been much better if mistakes were not made but the past is the past.
Rupert said “we all thought he still had them….” That is a statement I have heard many times over from many people. I however simply do not agree with that statement as it is intrinsically false there are people who did not think Iraq had WMD’s as shown by protestors etc. I do not intend this as criticism directed at you personally but intend it as criticism against that statement in general.
They did find some…emphasis on some:-
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/report/2004/isg-final-report/isg-final-report_vol3_cw-anx-f.htm
However, since Saddam wished to make the Iranians believe he still had WMD, it’s hardly surprising that pre-war we all thought he still had them….