Cheney: Up is Down

Look at this ABC News story:

MIAMI Oct. 7, 2004 — Vice President Dick Cheney asserted on Thursday that a report by the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, who found no evidence that Iraq produced weapons of mass destruction after 1991, justifies rather than undermines President Bush's decision to go to war.

[snip]

While saying that Saddam's weapons program had deteriorated since the 1991 Gulf War and did not pose a threat to the world in 2003, the report did say that Saddam's main goal was to get international sanctions lifted.

"As soon as the sanctions were lifted he had every intention of going back" to his weapons program, Cheney said.

What a load of crap.

As if the choice posed to the administration and the American people was binary: invade Iraq now or lift sanctions. Yes, if that was the choice, I guess invade Iraq had some merit. This conception of the problem leaves out the vast middleground of continuing international sanctions and inspections, or even tailoring sanctions somewhat in order to mitigate the harmful effects of certain sanctions on Iraqis while still interdicting WMD related program activities.