Did you know: Saddam offered to surrender before the war?

[grytpype]

I wrote this dkos diary a year ago... and it's even more relevant now.

Now that Bush's WMD stories have been proven to be 100% "dead wrong," -- even to the extent Bush has had to admit it, after struggling for months to keep hope alive...

And now that 53% of the public believes the war was not worth the cost...

I think this is an ideal moment to widely publicize the fact that Saddam offered to surrender, almost a total capitulation, before the war. He offered to let thousands of US troops into the country to search for WMD, and even offered to hold monitored elections in two years.

But Bush and Cheney both personally refused these offers and took America to war. They could have had everything the war achieved -- confirmation of no WMD and elections in two years -- for no cost, and they preferred war!

I think it's time to discuss that decision. To force Bush and Cheney to explain that decision. And that can be done, if the blogosphere picks up the story.

Source: Guardian United, Saddam's desperate offers to stave off war
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1079769,00.html

Washington dismissed Iraq's peace feelers, including elections and weapons pledge, put forward via diplomatic channels and US hawk Perle

Julian Borger in Washington, Brian Whitaker and Vikram Dodd
Friday November 7, 2003
The Guardian

In the few weeks before its fall, Iraq's Ba'athist regime made a series of increasingly desperate peace offers to Washington, promising to hold elections and even to allow US troops to search for banned weapons. But the advances were all rejected by the Bush administration, according to intermediaries involved in the talks.

...

Iraqi intelligence was also offering privately to allow several thousand US troops into the country to take part in the search for banned weapons.

Baghdad even proposed staging internationally-monitored elections within two years.

"All these offers had at bottom the same thing - that Saddam would stay in power, and that was unacceptable to the administration," Mr Cannistraro said. "There were serious attempts to cut a deal but they were all turned down by the president and vice president."

[Lars39]

1. Yes, I remember.

Shameful and despicable insistence on war. :(

[grytpype]

3. Well let's get a buzz going! K&R!!!

[AlCzervik]

2. there wasn't nearly enough $$$ to made in him surrendering.

[Hissyspit]

4. I remember. n/t

[cantstandbush]

5. Yes, I remember. Saddam should mention this at his trial.

It did not suit the neocon/PNAC agenda to have Saddam surrender and for Iraq to form a stable and responsible government in peace.

Shouldn't it be a war crime to refuse to accept the peaceful surrender of your enemy?

[Yupster]

16. They chose what to try Saddam on carefully

It's a very specific incident which had nothing to do with the USA or the war.

[Liberal In Texas]

6. Nothing could stop the warmongers from having their war. K/R n/t

[alcuno]

7. I believe he also challenged Mr. Bush to a duel. n/t

[grytpype]

19. Seriously, or are you joking?

[htuttle]

24. Seriously, he did -- here's a link

W.H. rejects Bush-Saddam duel offer
Thursday, October 3, 2002

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House scorned an Iraqi leader's suggestion that President Bush and Saddam Hussein could resolve their differences in a duel, calling it an "irresponsible statement" that did not justify a "serious response."

(more at link)
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/10/03/iraq.bush.duel/

[walldude]

8. I also remember this...

Once 9/11 came there was nothing on earth that could have stopped this invasion.

[Brothaman2k]

15. Don't be fooled

9/11 happend so they COULD have this invasion.

[fooj]

37. No fools around here! Welcome to DU!

Peace.

[mzmolly]

9. Yes, I did - but I'm recommending as we need a reminder.

The MSM hasn't mentioned that - huh?

[Sydnie]

10. This is new info to me

thanks for posting this.

[alittlelark]

11. I knew that...... but we had to get our Permanent Bases built

so....... whatever. It is sooo old news as to be nostalgic... the good old days of EFFECTIVE propaganda....

[SOS]

27. Re "permanent bases"

Bushco recently renamed them "long term access bases".
So now they can say they are not "permanent".
More deception.

[tuvor]

12. And bush said Saddam could remain in power if he disarmed.

"If military action proves necessary, it will be to uphold the authority of the UN and to ensure Saddam is disarmed of his weapons of mass destruction, not to overthrow him. It is why, detestable as I find his regime, he could stay in power if he disarms peacefully."

http://www.sundayherald.com/print31827

Bush: March 5, 2003

"We are doing everything we can to avoid war in Iraq. But if Saddam Hussein does not disarm peacefully, he will be disarmed by force,"

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030308-1.html

[patrice]

13. Thanks for reminding me.

I remember hearing that on Public Radio and thinking it could stop the coming war, if someone would just make a big deal out of SH's bid and demand a strategic response to it.

[Yupster]

17. I remember Bush giving Saddam

and his sons 48 hours to leave the country or be invaded.

I was telling everyone on DU not to worry because at the last minute Saddam would fly to the mansion next to Idi Amin's in Saudi Arabia where he could plot his comeback.

I bet he wished he followed my advice.

By the way I have lots more predictions almost as good as that one was.

[mmonk]

14. yes I do remember that.

But shock and awe wasn't just aimed at Iraq. It was aimed at the world (to induce fear in the middle eastern countries). There was going to be war no matter what.

[dweller]

18. but he had to admit to wmd's

"According to an Arab source, Mr Perle sent a Saudi official a set of requirements he believed Iraq would have to fulfil. Those demands included Saddam's abdication and departure, first to a US military base for interrogation and then into supervised exile, a surrender of Iraqi troops, and the admission that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. "


the only wmd i am aware of sits in the oval office.
dp

[bleever]

20. It's very valuable to review these basic facts, after the maelstrom

we've been living through.

Thank you for re-posting this. This kind of thing is crucial to getting the history straight in the minds of a nation shell-shocked by 9/11, the Afghanistan war, and the fevered drive to go to Iraq.

Rec'd.

[Poiuyt]

21. Bush wanted to invade Iraq according to his biographer

Houston: Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in preparation for a planned autobiography.

“He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999,” said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. “It was on his mind. He said to me: ‘One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.’ And he said, ‘My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.’ He said, ‘If I have a chance to invade….if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.”

http://www.gnn.tv/articles/article.php?id=761

Did you catch that? "If I have a chance to invade..." Does that sound like someone who would avoid war at all costs?

[freefall]

22. Yes, I knew that. Didn't matter. The neo-cons were going to invade Iraq no

matter what. This was evident months before the war.

Peace,

freefall

[JCMach1]

23. Yes, the UAE brokered the deal

Hussein wanted guarantees and international assurances, including a resolution by the Arab League giving its approval for his exile, the senior official said.

News of the reported offer from the UAE emerged last week during an interview broadcast by the Arab network Al-Arabiya with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahayan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates.

The offer was spearheaded by his father, then-UAE President Sheikh Zayed Ben Sultan Al Nahayan, who died November 3. (Full story)

"During those days, the circumstances we worked under needed a very swift decision, an immediate response," the crown prince said in a documentary broadcast by the network.

"We had secured the approval of the main players, everyone who was involved, and the man concerned -- Saddam Hussein -- in 24 hours," he said. "So we came to the summit to lay down all the facts at the conference table. There would have been results if the issues were brought up but, again, this is all part of the past right now."... http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/02/saddam.exile/

[Dragonbreathp9d]

25. Jesus

[atomic-fly]

26. Mother F**kers!

I'm so apalled by this crap.

[Stand and Fight]

28. I have never forgotten.

This is one of the reasons Bush is a war-mongering idiot in my book and always will be.

[liberal N proud]

29. We couldn't have allowed that to happen, then we wouldn't have

the mechanism for fear and perpetual war.

[wiggs]

30. REALLY timely. Please spread around to KO, others. nt

[anarch]

31. yeah, but the PNAC plan calls for "Large Wars"

Mission #2 of the Four Essential Missions of the U.S. military...multiple large wars, in fact. If we don't aggressively pursue such wars, how are we going to fulfill that mission? It's all part of, you know, Rebuilding America's Defenses.

[blm]

32. Kerry said this during the campaign and media treated it as if he was

not serious.

NO discussion by broadcast media - as if the charge never happened.

[Justice Is Comin]

33. Judy Miller was

too far into the bullshit spreading mission for Little Boots. They were busy planting those nuke parts.

[Cleita]

34. Yes, and I was flabbergasted when the Bush regime told

him it was too late for him to surrender.

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. Yes I did know that. nt

[LynnTheDem]

36. Yes.

And the last time I posted that fact, I was only attacked and called a "Saddam lover" by 2 members. Progress.