A big news story of this week became the Iraq war. The question of what we know today would you have started the invasion of Iraq? That question was asked of presidential candidate Jeb Bush. That became a difficult question for him as over a 4 day period he was still trying to explain himself. A number of the other GOP presidential candidates were asked the same question in the following days as Jeb Bush’s stumbling became big news.

Let’s review what we know NOW about the start of this atrocious war.

The New York Times, the newspaper that many news reporters quote, ran an article on February 16, 2015, with the headline, “IRAQ HAD WMDS AFTER ALL.” An amazing fact as the talking points from politicians said the Bush Administration lied.

The fact, that didn’t get much publicity at the time, was released in early 2003, as an UN inspection agency, UNSCOM, stated that, “Iraq produced 600 metric tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, VX, and sarin, and nearly 25,000 rockets and 15,000 artillery shells, with chemical agents, that are still unaccounted for.”  President George W. Bush attacked Iraq in 2003.

A brief history of events.

In 1991, President George H. W. Bush assembled a large group of international countries and obtained international approval to fight Saddam Hussein after he attacked Kuwait.  The war lasted 6 weeks.  From that time until President Clinton left office the CIA working with the United Nations inspectors looked for WMDs in Iraq.  Saddam made the UN’s work difficult. From 1998 to 2002, Iraq remained without any outside weapons inspectors. Even the U.S. Congress was concerned that Saddam was working on nuclear weapons.  Few Americans remember that President Bill Clinton authorized airstrikes on Iraq from December 16-19, 1998.

A candidate’s answer on this question is difficult depending on how much information they may know.  A candidate who may know the correct answer has a problem as Americans have been told ever since 2003 that there were no WMDS.

Roger H. Ewing, Hays