Saddam Hussein, Curveball, WMD, and the Iraq War

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In a recent interview, an Iraqi national who gave fabricated intelligence to the Germans has emerged as the major supplier of excuses to invade/liberate Iraq.

Saddam Hussein had been a vicious dictator, a thorn in the side of the moralist Republican administrations in the US (Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2), as well as the moderate Democrat administrations (Carter, Clinton).  There is absolutely no doubt that Saddam was vicious, cruel, unbalanced, deceitful, vindictive and a liar.  There may have been sneaking suspicions among more impressionable Americans that Saddam's people had nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.  But some of us knew all along that Saddam's greatest delight was to frustrate the Americans for the simple reason that he (and his fellow Iraqis, along with most of the world) did not appreciate the attitude of the sector of the US population that considered this country to be a sort of super-policeman over other countries.  Saddam was bluffing, and most of us knew it.  Even the UN WMD inspectors began to realize it; Saddam was making The West spend an enormous amount of money on a total wild goose chase.

One can easily imagine that any red-blooded Iraqi could be goaded to his or her limit, and begin to think that any lie that could bring Saddam down was worth it.  Under ordinary circumstances, American intelligence would have seen through this childish dissembling, and dismissed the story.  But evidently it suited our spies to pretend to believe this fake intelligence, and persuade Colin Powell to tell the United Nations General Assembly that Saddam Hussein's bluff had to be called.  Colin Powell is now in the awkward position of a man who was manipulated by American Intelligence, or a man who chose to lie to the UNO on behalf of American Intelligence.

What morals can we draw from this story?  The CIA is our tiger, but is it safe to ride it?  What is the cost in lives, both American and Iraqi?

Can we continue to pretend that removing Saddam was a simple office procedure, not requiring hospitalization?  Were we confusing toppling a regime abroad with a dental extraction?  Were we thinking: we have to help our Iraqi buddies out, no matter how much the cost?  It is absolutely no fun trying to guess at the hidden motivations of the Bush Administration; the forces at work there were utterly disgusting, and I pity everyone who voted for Bush, and the pathetic excuse for a Supreme Court that gave him the 2000 election.

I can understand Curveball, still unrepentant after the loss of close to a million lives.  After all, he was an amateur liar.  But I cannot understand the machinations of the Pentagon and the Bush White House, and no doubt they're only too happy to keep it that way.

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