[richlevy]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

The five-volume report affirmed that there was “no ’smoking gun’ (i.e., direct connection) between Saddam’s Iraq and al Qaeda.” But it also said there was “strong evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional and global terrorism.”

Of course by that definition, any number of countries would have had an excuse to invade us based on CIA activities.

(As a note, the author is drawing some conclusions that are too direct. The truth is a little fuzzier).

Example

Indonesia — The CIA overthrows the democratically elected Sukarno with a military coup. The CIA has been trying to eliminate Sukarno since 1957, using everything from attempted assassination to sexual intrigue, for nothing more than his declaring neutrality in the Cold War. His successor, General Suharto, will massacre between 500,000 to 1 million civilians accused of being "communist." The CIA supplies the names of countless suspects.

From a the NYTimes:

In fact, the collection of documents are not so juicy as to show C.I.A. involvement in the coup attempt or in the specific events that allowed Suharto to emerge as the winner afterwards. They do show an American effort after the coup attempt to encourage the Indonesian military's wholesale effort to wipe out the Communist opposition. Generally accepted estimates from historians range from 300,000 to one million dead in the killing rampage.

Generally, a country's covert intelligence involvement in questionable associations is not cause for invasion. New Zealand did not attempt to invade France for blowing up a ship in their harbor. China did not attack the U.S. for blowing up their embassy .

The US never found that Iraq was harboring Al Qaeda as was Afghanistan, and never found any weapons program that was a threat to the US. The alleged ties and links found could probably be found in most Middle East countries, including our allies and oil suppliers.

Still not worth 4,000 lives and 1-4 trillion dollars.