The real, the official and the post-factum

[A18]

Putting our troops in harm's way is the hardest decision any President faces. I believe our action in Iraq clearly is in America's interest. Never again can we allow Saddam Hussein to develop nuclear weapons, poison gas, biological weapons, or missiles to deliver them. He has used such terrible weapons before against soldiers, against his neighbors, against civilians. And if left unchecked, he'll use them again.

-- Bill Clinton, December 19, 1998 Radio Address
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showdoc.php?id=514&type=3&president=42

I gave you the exact quotation as you asked.

[Blue Rectangle]

Putting our troops in harm's way is the hardest decision any President faces. I believe our action in Iraq clearly is in America's interest. Never again can we allow Saddam Hussein to develop nuclear weapons, poison gas, biological weapons, or missiles to deliver them. He has used such terrible weapons before against soldiers, against his neighbors, against civilians. And if left unchecked, he'll use them again.

-- Bill Clinton, December 19, 1998 Radio Address
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showdoc.php?id=514&type=3&president=42

Uh, okay. Where are the WMDs? And besides, what do you say to this? Saddam had WMDs in the 80s because someone gave him WMDs. And who was that someone?

A picture of a handshake.  Is that supposed to be evidence that the US sold chemical weapons to Saddam?

You are correct that someone gave Saddam the technology to make WMD.  You are wrong that it was the US.  The UN analyzed an unexploded shell and determined that, due to the lack of sulfur in the weapon, it was not made with US technology.  The US and UK acted in early 1984 to ban shipments of WMD base chemicals to Iraq in response to a sudden increase in orders from Iraq for those chemiclas.  It is believed that the Soviets continued to quietly supply these materials to Iraq during the Iraq-Iran War.

Given that Saddam's military consisted mostly of Soviet hardware (with Chinese and French making up almost all the remainder), it is really that surprising that the USSR sold him WMD technology too?

[A18]

Putting our troops in harm's way is the hardest decision any President faces. I believe our action in Iraq clearly is in America's interest. Never again can we allow Saddam Hussein to develop nuclear weapons, poison gas, biological weapons, or missiles to deliver them. He has used such terrible weapons before against soldiers, against his neighbors, against civilians. And if left unchecked, he'll use them again.

-- Bill Clinton, December 19, 1998 Radio Address
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showdoc.php?id=514&type=3&president=42

Bump. There's the quotation. You want to respond now?

[Shira]

Putting our troops in harm's way is the hardest decision any President faces. I believe our action in Iraq clearly is in America's interest. Never again can we allow Saddam Hussein to develop nuclear weapons, poison gas, biological weapons, or missiles to deliver them. He has used such terrible weapons before against soldiers, against his neighbors, against civilians. And if left unchecked, he'll use them again.

-- Bill Clinton, December 19, 1998 Radio Address
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showdoc.php?id=514&type=3&president=42

Bump. There's the quotation. You want to respond now?

Sadam did not use biological weapons, but he did use poison gas in his war against Iran in the eighties. The US was aware of this fact but did not say a word. At that time Iraq was one of US best friends. View for example, the Rumsfeld-Sadam picture from that era.

[Blue Rectangle]

Putting our troops in harm's way is the hardest decision any President faces. I believe our action in Iraq clearly is in America's interest. Never again can we allow Saddam Hussein to develop nuclear weapons, poison gas, biological weapons, or missiles to deliver them. He has used such terrible weapons before against soldiers, against his neighbors, against civilians. And if left unchecked, he'll use them again.

-- Bill Clinton, December 19, 1998 Radio Address
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showdoc.php?id=514&type=3&president=42

Bump. There's the quotation. You want to respond now?

Sadam did not use biological weapons, but he did use poison gas in his war against Iran in the eighties. The US was aware of this fact but did not say a word. At that time Iraq was one of US best friends. View for example, the Rumsfeld-Sadam picture from that era.

Barak and Arafat shook hands; are the Israelis and Palestinians best friends?

The US and Iraq were never best friends.  The contacts with Iraq in the eighties were driven by the US policy that neither side in the Iran-Iraq War win.  At the time of the picture, Iran had successfully expelled Iraqi troops from their country and intended to drive Saddam from power.  We would have been happy to see Saddam go, but not at the cost of having Iran occupy Iraq.

Once again, please note that Saddam's military is nearly devoid of US hardware.  France and the USSR supplied Saddam in the eighties.  US support of Iraq did not go beyond minor diplomatic support to make it clear to Iran that we would not approve of Iraq's destruction.

[A18]

Putting our troops in harm's way is the hardest decision any President faces. I believe our action in Iraq clearly is in America's interest. Never again can we allow Saddam Hussein to develop nuclear weapons, poison gas, biological weapons, or missiles to deliver them. He has used such terrible weapons before against soldiers, against his neighbors, against civilians. And if left unchecked, he'll use them again.

-- Bill Clinton, December 19, 1998 Radio Address
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showdoc.php?id=514&type=3&president=42

Bump. There's the quotation. You want to respond now?

Sadam did not use biological weapons, but he did use poison gas in his war against Iran in the eighties. The US was aware of this fact but did not say a word. At that time Iraq was one of US best friends. View for example, the Rumsfeld-Sadam picture from that era.

Yes, and we can tell you're very educated about this subject by your new spelling of the name Saddam.

What the hell does that have to do with anything? You asked for the specific quote where Clinton said Saddam had WMDs. Well, I gave it. Did Clinton lie?