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weapons of mass destruction

This presumably is newspeak for "big weapons". This is the major reason the U.S. uses to publically justify its invasion of Iraq. The presumption is that either Iraq will develop nuclear, chemical or bacteriological weapons to hurl or to sell. The target of the weapons of mass destruction is normally assumed to be the people in the free west, but the U.S. are also worried that Saddam might take aim at his own oil.

	George Bush Jnr	" Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are controlled by a murderous tyrant who has already used chemical weapons to kill thousands of people. This same tyrant has tried to dominate the Middle East, has invaded and brutally occupied a small neighbor, has struck other nations without warning, and holds an unrelenting hostility toward the United States." President George W Bush, October 7,2002
	the big picture	" Today, however, the great majority of the American people have no concept of what kind of conflict the president is leading them into. The White House has presented this as a war to depose Saddam Hussein in order to keep him from acquiring weapons of mass destruction--a goal that the majority of Americans support. But the White House really has in mind an enterprise of a scale, cost, and scope that would be almost impossible to sell to the American public... So it hasn't even tried. Instead, it's focused on getting us into Iraq with the hope of setting off a sequence of events that will draw us inexorably towards the agenda they have in mind. Joshua Marshall, Washington Monthly, March 31, 2003
	iraqi oil	" The US military says this is a security issue rather than a grab for oil, after a 'variety of intelligence sources' indicated that Saddam planned to damage or destroy his oil fields - which would inflict up to $30bn damage on the US economy and cause irreparable environmental damage." UK Observer January 26, 2003
	dick cheney	" Saddam Hussein's offensive military capability, his capacity to threaten his neighbors, has been virtually eliminated. This is a very significant development." Dick Cheney, April 29, 1991
	israeli security	Link to MSNBC graphic: "Secret arsenal of the Jewish State." This interactive locates 7 strategic weapons plants and 3 missile facilities. MSNBC [found via altercation]

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