Talk:House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations

Iraq's nuclear capabilities would make a nice case study of propaganda.

The use of such venues as Meet the Press, which are supposed to expose propaganda, to spread it, is also a quite interesting phenomena.

Cheney said that "Baghdad has chemical and biological weapons, as well as missiles with ranges in excess of U.N. restrictions. If left unchecked, it probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade... Since inspections ended in 1998, Iraq has maintained its chemical weapons effort, energized its missile program, and invested more heavily in biological weapons; in the view of most agencies, Baghdad is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program... Iraq is continuing, and in some areas expanding, its chemical, biological, nuclear and missile programs contrary to U.N. Resolutions."

What makes this propaganda is: (a) the nuclear weapons stuff seems to be false, period, and Cheney knew that when he said it (b) the US itself ended inspections by resuming bombing under Clinton, and did not ask for the inspectors to return - when they eventually did, Saddam complied, even under threat of invasion (c) the US's prime ally in the region, Israel, and Iraq's prime rival, has nuclear capability and has never let inspectors in, despite demands that they do so from the UN and as far back as President John F. Kennedy, who was adamant that Israel should not have nuclear weapons, period.