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Was it worth it?


observer

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There was a Panorama prog on tonight, looking into the intelligence of WMDs in Iraq, that Bliar and Bush used as the excuse for the War. There was also a news report on the state of Iraq today, 10 years on; and as some of us predicted at the time, it's hoplessly divided between Sunnis, Shias and Kurds, and the violence continues. When asked, whether it was worth it; the Iraqi who was filmed demolishing Saddam's statue with a sledge hammer said: he now "regrets it".

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Certainly a case of truth being stranger than fiction:  Bush and Bliar had clearly made up their minds to invade, but clearly required some justification in the form of intelligence.  This was provided by several Iraqis, who were desperate to leave Iraq, the main one being codenamed "curveball", who turned up as an assylum seeker in Germany. German intelligence interviewed him and were rather sceptical about his story, but never the less passed  the info onto the Yanks (IE that Saddam was producing WMDs), Even lower rank CIA managers were sceptical about the information, but were overidden in their caution by their bosses, as his fabrications fitted their preconceived views. So Bush and Bliar were being fed what they wanted to hear, rather than sound intelligence; and this misinformation (the notorious "dossier" and the 45minute threat)) was eventually used publicly to justify the invasion. It's interesting that the French and Germans, who had both gathered information from these Iraqi fabricators, had the sense to ignore it and subsequently not get involved in the adventure. The one piece of "good" intelligence from a top source (the Iraqi Foreign Minister), that there were no WMDs, was dismissed on the basis that ("he would say that, wouldn't he"?). - and the rest is history. 

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