Utah Free Press

Clinton Lied and People Died!

By Richard Okelberry (Note: This essay was originally published at KVNU’s, For the People Blog.)

I wanted to share this video from the 1998 State of the Union Address by Bill Clinton.  Close your eyes for just a moment and it’s not hard to imagine that Bush is delivering this speech.  For those of you that still believe that Bush was just making up Intelligence and lying about Iraq to get us to go to war, we all need to remember that it was the Clinton Administration that handed the Bush administration the belief that Iraq was a serious threat.  Following 9/11, this belief was simply too much for us to ignore.

I would also like to point out that it was Bill Clinton that signed the Iraqi Liberation Act which by law made it the policy of the United States to over throw the Saddam regime.  In support of signing this act, President Clinton said in February 1998:

“Iraq admitted, among other things, an offensive biological warfare capability, notably, 5,000 gallons of botulinum, which causes botulism; 2,000 gallons of anthrax; 25 biological-filled Scud warheads; and 157 aerial bombs. And I might say UNSCOM inspectors believe that Iraq has actually greatly understated its production…. Over the past few months, as [the weapons inspectors] have come closer and closer to rooting out Iraq’s remaining nuclear capacity, Saddam has undertaken yet another gambit to thwart their ambitions by imposing debilitating conditions on the inspectors and declaring key sites which have still not been inspected off limits….

…It is obvious that there is an attempt here, based on the whole history of this operation since 1991, to protect whatever remains of his capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction, the missiles to deliver them, and the feed stocks necessary to produce them. The UNSCOM inspectors believe that Iraq still has stockpiles of chemical and biological munitions, a small force of Scud-type missiles, and the capacity to restart quickly its production program and build many, many more weapons….

…Now, let’s imagine the future. What if he fails to comply and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route, which gives him yet more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction. And some day, some way, I guarantee you he’ll use the arsenal….” President Clinton ~ 1998

We now know that none of this was true.  It seems now that CLINTON LIED and PEOPLE DIED!  Right?