Bush Presidential Library Misleads Visitors On Iraq WMDs

[Alan C.]

Bush Presidential Library Misleads Visitors On WMDs In Iraq

 

In at least eight separate instances, the library offers displays, audio, or video designed to give the impression that Saddam Hussein either possessed weapons of mass destruction, or was on the verge of getting them.

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For example, the museum has a big display detailing the “Threat Assessment” of Saddam Hussein, followed by the “Status by the end of Bush presidency”. One curt sentence among the 44 lines notes that “No stockpiles of WMD were found.” Meanwhile, twelve lines are devoted to the possible presence of WMDs in Iraq before the war and how we never have to worry about that now post-war, including that Saddam “refused to account for his chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs” and that “post-invasion inspections confirmed that Saddam Hussein had the capacity to resume production of WMD.”

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Even in the instances where the museum concedes that WMDs didn’t exist in Iraq, it still uses an asterisk approach to leave visitors with the impression they did, or were about to. One interactive panel tells users that, although there were “no WMD found,” the chief U.S. weapons inspector found that Hussein “had a large number of WMD program-related activities” and “never gave up its ambition to obtain WMD”.

Similarly, it later tells users that “no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction are found, although Iraq’s WMD-related program activities are still a threat.”

Finally, a document in the interactive detailed the WMD situation in Iraq, telling users that “Saddam wanted to recreate Iraq’s WMD capability” because he saw significant “value” in possessing WMDs.

An audio tour also underscored the idea that Saddam would have gotten WMD were it not for Bush’s decision to invade.

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Later, a choose-your-own-adventure style interactive features advisers who link Saddam and 9/11: “The world changed on 9/11. Saddam shows every signs he wants to give terrorists weapons of mass destruction to attack the US, a risk we cannot afford.” Another unequivocally declares that “Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction. And don’t forget, during the Gulf War, we also discovered Saddam was much further along in developing nuclear weapons than anyone believed.”