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It is unprecedented that a war be started on evidence as flimsy as this
unprecedented, like, in the history of mankind? I could think off the top of my head of, say, half a dozen from last century. the niger documents, as ludicrous as they were, did not constitute the only evidence offered to wage war, and were therefore not crucial for Shrub and Blair to justify the invasion. it doesn't excuse what happened, but lets not overstate the role of the Niger documents.
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(and all the other evidence is equally flimsy),
No, there is entirely credible evidence that hussein had bio and chem weapons, and all the thousands of litres of mold or athletes foot, or whatever the hell they were cooking up, have not been accounted for. This is not in dispute by any credible observer.
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but both governments put this information forward as prima facia evidence of WMD.
what information are you referring to exactly? Because its not all the same, the evidence runs the spectrum from absurd to highly credible. feel free to reject Bush's decisions, i sure as hell do, but you have to stick with the facts.
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It is inconcievable that the heirarchy of the two governments did not discuss this in great detail before presenting this 'data'. It is equally inconcievable that the intelligence agencies of the two countries did not warn their 'masters' of the unreliability of the information, so we are drawn to the conclusion that there were other reasons for wishing to ignore those warnings.
indeed, means to the end of democratizing and free-market-izing the middle east. do you, linx, reject in principle means to end strategies, that is, lesser short-term injustice for greater long-term justice?
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My only wish is to get to the truth of the matter.
if truth is what you seek, I would avoid generalizations, and embrace nuance, nuance being something that comes with age and experience and as often as not drinking single malts neat.