Originally Posted by
Deal
How long did it take most Republicans to admit the Iraq war was actually US initiated terrorism? It took years and small steps. IRAQ has WMD ==> Saddam is a bad dictator ==> It was best for long term peace ==> omg what a fuckup ==> Jesus Christ we were wrong ==> Oh well, USA USA USA. 8 years for most.
The Trump nutters are far more invested in the Donald than those invested in the Iraq war so when the train hits the wall, and it will, the division in the US will be a "tremendous disaster" for years.
Republicans always got a bad rap for the "Iraq has WMD" thing.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Saddam was playing a frustrating hide-and-seek game with the UN regarding his WMD program.
Republicans did not invent some WMD scare in order to justify invading Iraq. In reality, Saddam had a WMD program dating back to before the 1991 Gulf War, and he kept secretly restarting the program every time after he agreed to "really stop it for good this time".
He also kept thwarting UN attempts to inspect them, dating all the way back to mid-1991. He would agree to inspections, and then either go back on the agreements or only let inspectors look at certain areas.
We will never know for sure, but I believe that Saddam had a WMD program shortly before our 2003 invasion, but dismantled it for whatever reason.
Saddam was also going to be a constant thorn in the United States' side for as long as he ruled Iraq.
The US basically had enough of him, and they felt that they had enough justification to invade, given the intelligence reports stating that WMDs existed there at the time.
Keep in mind that most centrist and left-centrist Democrats also supported the 2003 Iraq invasion, which gave rise to John Kerry's infamous 2004 quote, "I voted for it before I voted against it."