Weapons of Mass Distraction
The Australian Government is clearly engaged in a serious effort to re-write the history of the Irak Invasion to suit current political imperatives. This time around, the Defence Minister is claiming that "we went to war in Iraq to support the Security Council which had to be assured that Saddam Hussein had got rid of his weapons of mass destruction... Now we are confident that there are no weapons of mass destruction." However, as this is so blatantly contrary to the Government's existing line, the Minister issued a 'clarification' to the media very shortly afterwards.
The PM and the Government have previously insisted that WMD will be found in Irak. The invasion was conducted in spite of Security Council resistance, with no mandate to prove the non-existence of WMD. Hill himself declared "From an Australian perspective, we entered the conflict to remove the threat of weapons of mass destruction".
Indeed, the 'liberation' of the people of Iraq, was up until the WMD Intelligence crutch broke, regarded as a side-benefit. In March 2003, Man of Steel regarded the objective as "the disarmament of Iraq" unequivocally. Not once did he mention the liberation of the people of Iraq during the lead-up to the war as a motivation.
In May last year, Foreign Minister Downer was still certain that there was "no doubt that they [WMD] exist".
The Government in the last several months has been "adjusting" the history of the conflict, and of their utterances and policies, to match the revelation of "facts" on Iraq. This latest attempt to obfuscate would have us believe that the Government was motivated to go to war to support a UN resolution to ensure that Iraq had disposed of its WMD; even a casual reading of news reporting from early 2003 shows this position to be untenable and blatantly dishonest.
Contrast this with the Pakistan's admission that its chief nuclear scientist actively aided the proliferation of WMD to 'extremist' states, and the US's unwillingness to pursue what was clearly the worst example of nuclear proliferation since the Cold War. Indeed, the Pakistani President asserted they had "no intention of allowing any independent, United Nations investigation of its nuclear assets" - a similar response from Irak precipitated the present situation.
Item posted by AutoEditor at 2:41 pm ::
