Carnegie Endowment Reveals More Truth about Iraqi Campaign

The Bush Administration gets another blow
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the reliable independent research organization published a report evidencing that military intelligence concerning Iraqi WMD was terribly distorted and that Iraq in fact posed no danger for the US.

The alleged menace to the US was the reason why Washington attacked Iraq. The report says that Iraq’s nuclear program was shut long ago, but the intelligence exaggerated the menace of Iraq's chemical and bacteriological weapons for the sake of political concerns. No reliable information was reported at that to prove Saddam Hussein's relations with al-Qaida and probable delivery of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.

The report mentions some statements made by President Bush and State Secretary Colin Powell that were based on false data. Development of Al-Sumud missile which range ability exceeded the limit of 150 kilometers by 30 kilometers was Iraq's only infringement of the UN sanctions.

The Carnegie Endowment goes further and urges to give up Bush's "one-sided preventive war" strategy that allows the US attack regimes for some reasons disagreeable to America. Experts of the Endowment have suggested more constructive ideas, for example, they say that an independent commission must be set up to clarify what the intelligence knew in fact; the CIA must be headed by a professional, not a political figure. The Endowment recommends the UN to set up a standing body to control non-proliferation of WMD. The body must differentiate the degree of danger of various weapons of mass destruction and reconsider the official thesis saying that the threat of outlaw countries and terrorists requires extreme war measures.

The report has hit the mark because Colin Powell immediately responded to it. The US secretary of state makes awkward attempts to justify himself and relieve the Bush Administration of the responsibility. The US electorate will decide if the Bush Administration is responsible for the Iraqi adventure or not.

Anatoly Andreyev