The U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 because Saddam Huseein allegedly had weapons of mass destruction and links to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. But in 2004 interviews with the FBI — obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archives and reported on by the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler –  a captured Saddam said that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam loathed Osama bin Laden. Saddam told an FBI interviewer that Iraq said it had weapons of mass destruction only as a deterrent against Iran. Indeed, the Iraqi leader saw Iran, not the United States, as the country’s one true enemy and threat. Also, Saddam made clear that he was ideologically opposed to al-Qaeda and its use of religious fundamentalism in politics.

Maybe Saddam, knowing his criminal trial was near, was still concocting dastardly lies to undermine the brave freedom fighters taking on Iraq reconstruction. But Saddam’s words verify the detective work of United Nations weapons inspectors and Middle East experts conducted in the run-up to the Iraq War. How the Whtie House and more than 3/4 of the U.S. Senate grew convinced in late-2002 that America had to declare war on Iraq now is already one of the great examples of disastrous Washington groupthink. It’s no wonder Barack Obama played down the celebrations in Iraq yesterday as U.S. troops left Iraqi cities — our involvement there is — ultimately — an embarrassment.-MB

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