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IRAQ WMD: We Were Wrong
by David E. Meadows , 2005

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT MILITARY.COM, December 05, 2005

November was a rough month for the administration. On Tuesday - November 1, the Democrats seized the momentum of the Senate in a rare close-door session that shocked the administration into recognizing how much support of the American people for the War in Iraq was ebbing. The approval rating was heading downward fast and furiously. This political maneuver by the Democrats outflanked the Republican majority using it to demand the inquiry hasten concerning possible misuse of intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in the case for war against Iraq. When the doors to the Senate reopened, the Republicans promised to start hearings.

One thing about the Bush administration; they are scrappers. The issue about pre-War information about Iraqi WMD being manipulated had been boiling for while as an issue. It had been damped within the administration as something that could be ignored. How to fight back became an important key to negate this political maneuver by the Democrats. One way would be to remove the WMD issue from the argument.

So, it was a mild shock wondering how the administration would respond to the Democratic victory when on national television Sunday morning November 13, 2005 the National Security Advisor admitted they were wrong about WMD in Iraq. It started like this. Stephen Hadley - Hadley replaced Condalessa Rice as the President’s National Security Advisor when she became Secretary of State. He was being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN LATE EDITION around 11:00AM EST. Blitzer offered that when all is said and done, the president was responsible for bad intelligence on WMD.

Hadley must have been cheering internally over the question. He wrapped his answer by reaching out arms to encompass 77 members of the Senate; world leaders; and, the Clinton Administration as fellow believers about Iraq having a WMD program. Then, with three words he fired the return cannon against the Democrats by admitting, “We were wrong,” about WMD in Iraq. The administration put everyone on notice that ‘when-if’ they go down the road of Monday night quarter-backing on the WMD issue, a lot of the people pounding the lectern for speeding up the investigation now were going to be seen as ‘flip-flopping’ their position. They were going to take everyone with them.

There is no better source than the National Security Advisor to the President for confirming there were no WMD even if the response was more a political maneuver than an administration coming to terms with another mistake.

We never would have initiated Operation Iraqi Freedom without the fear of WMD. When we were ramping up in 2002 to invade Iraq in March 2003, the key element inciting the American people for war was the fact we believed Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The administration played to those fears. Saddam had used them in the past against his own people and against the ‘peace-loving’ fanatics of Iran. Great arguments to convince a nation still reeling from 9/11.

The administration is right. Everyone believed Saddam had WMD. But, the issue isn’t that everyone believed Saddam had WMD. The issue is, were bits and pieces of information cherry-picked and hand-fed to validate the war?

WMD was the excuse to invade Iraq rather than whatever nefarious reason one may think otherwise because WMD was the only argument that would rally the American people behind an invasion of any country that had nothing to do with 9/11. If the administration had used a different argument such as the world would be a better place without Saddam, the American people would have agreed, but pointed out that Osama in Afghanistan is the one we want. The administration could have added that taking out Saddam would start a domino effect where sowed seeds of democracy would spread like wildfire across the Middle East. The American people would have said, “So what? We want Osama’s head on a pike.” The argument that invading Iraq will free the Iraqi people, we would have said, “Let them free themselves.” Those reasons, as good as they are, would have refocused America on the hills between Afghanistan and Pakistan where the person responsible for 9/11 remains free.

Leaders are human. They have the same human foibles resident in everyone. We trust them to put the American people above their own self worth and agendas. And, when they make mistakes we want leaders with the integrity to admit responsibility. As Hadley pointed out in the interview with Blitzer, the President takes full responsibility for the hard decisions he has made. In Washington where blame and responsibility is as slippery as oil in a hot Teflon skillet you have to admire the quality of character to admit mistakes. Unfortunately, it is a quality that is gaining a lot in experience.

David E. Meadows / SixthFleet.Com David E. Meadows Washington D.C. E-Mail readermail@SixthFleet.Com