• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Bush defends Iraq war using shifted rationale

PLA Daily 2004-02-09

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- US President George W. Bush defended his decision to launch war against Iraq using a shifted rationale on Sunday, saying ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had the capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction.

"He had the capacity to have a weapon, make a weapon," Bush said in an interview with NBC taped Saturday in the Oval Office. "He had the capacity to make a weapon and then let that weapon fall into the hands of a shadowy terrorist network."

The interview was broadcast Sunday.

Bush's remarks represented a major shift in his rationale he used to go to war with Iraq last March. He cited existing stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons to justify his war decision then.

The United States has failed to find any weapons of mass destruction since the war broke out, raising question over the credibility of the Bush administration.

Bush has been under mounting political pressure since former chief weapons inspector David Kay told the Congress 10 days ago that US intelligence was "almost all wrong" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Bush changed his mind last week and appointed an independent commission to look into problems with US intelligence agencies. Hesaid in the interview that he was confident the probe "will help future presidents understand how best to fight the war on terror."

He also offered speculations over what might have happened to the weapons his administration claimed existed before the war.

"They could have been destroyed during the war. Saddam and his henchmen could have destroyed them as we entered into Iraq," he said. "They could be hidden. They could have been transported to another country, and we'll find out."

The interview came at a time when polls showed that the intelligence failure had begun to erode Bush's approval rate. A Time/CNN poll released on Sunday said 55 percent of Americans have"doubts and reservations" about Bush and only 44 percent said he is a leader they can trust.