Everyone Lied (Except Bush) and People Will Die

Since 2007, the liberal and media establishments have been excoriating the Bush administration for failing to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They accuse the former President and his administration of sending the nation to war on false pretenses. "Bush lied, people died," was their battle cry. Democrats won two Presidential elections pushing the narrative that Bush had dragged the nation into an illegal war to ferret out fictitious weapons.

Yesterday, it was disclosed that ISIS used chemical weapons on the Kurds in Kobani - in Iraq. Someone lied, that is for sure. Someone or some groups profited in terms of both wealth and power by lying, that is also for sure. Some politicians grabbed power on a false premise. We know that for sure too.

But it was not George W. Bush.

The fact of matter is, we didn't immediately find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq because they were well hidden and we didn't look hard enough. ISIS, which is partially made up of the remnants of Saddam Hussein's military, knows exactly where those weapons were hidden. Why wouldn't they? Saddam's generals and commanders were busy hiding those weapons in anticipation of what at the time was an imminent U.S. invasion of Iraq. It should have been no surprise when, several months ago, ISIS uncovered an old cache of those chemical weapons with the help of Saddam's displaced military leaders. The Muthanna complex was ground zero for Hussein's chemical weapons production. ISIS seized that facility and everything in it, including 2500 "degraded" mustard gas rockets. We were told by the Obama Administration that there was absolutely no way ISIS would be able to convert these "deteriorated" weapons into anything useable, notwithstanding CIA communications to the contrary. Saying that the administration was "mistaken," is too generous a description, especially considering Mr. Obama's decade-long evisceration of Bush as a "liar."

Now we are seeing the worst case scenario taking shape. The Islamic State, fanatically committed to killing everyone in the world who does not submit to them, now has its own weapons of mass destruction. It is only a matter of time before they are used on someone other than the Kurds. The false narrative, cynically peddled by opponents of the Bush administration for political purposes, has now compromised our nation's security in the most serious of ways.

We know that Saddam Hussein had a vast chemical stockpile prior to the first Gulf War. We know he kept a great deal of that stockpile, even in the face of UN weapons inspections. That stockpile contained the most dangerous and deadly chemical weapons. Hussein possessed Sarin and VX nerve gasses, along with the mustard gas used yesterday. The continued belief that these weapons do not exist and are not going to end up in the hands of ISIS is just wishful thinking, and more people will die as a result.