Robert talks about his final times as a Navy chief petty officer during the “WMD” time period.
By: Robert Knight
-Staff Writer-
Considering how last week marked the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the recent telecasts of the MSNBC documentary, “Hubris: Selling the Iraq War,” now feels like a very appropriate time to share my memories and experiences from 2003.
From March 2000 to March 31, 2003, I served my last assignment in the U.S. Navy before retiring as a chief petty officer with 27 years of total service. President George W. Bush was my last commander in chief. I was assigned to the Navy’s largest headquarters command, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Washington, D.C., as one of two staff equal opportunity advisers for the commander of NAVSEA.
After beginning the war in Afghanistan but before invading Iraq, the military personnel and civilian federal employees working at NAVSEA spoke often about the U.S. justifications for each war. My prediction at the time was that we would not find any weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq. Nearly everyone thought this was nuts; except for two men, to be discussed.
My reasoning for why we would not find WMDs was fairly simple. I told people if I was Saddam Hussein, I would know two things for sure after the first Gulf War. First, America was willing to wage war if necessary to get what it wants. Second, U.N. inspectors could not be kept out of Iraq and away from WMDs forever. Soon after the first Gulf War, I, as Saddam Hussein, would have secretly begun to get rid of all my WMDs. I would have given away or sold what I could to my friends. Then I would have destroyed the rest.
Getting rid of WMDs would do two things. Most importantly, nothing will be there for the U.N. inspectors to find. Also, there could be the possibility of cooperating with President Bush, allowing the U.N. inspectors better access to everything. After the inspectors could not find any WMDs there would be the opportunity to embarrass President Bush by showing his claims as false.
A few months before the U.S. invaded Iraq, I was speaking to another chief who worked in the Navy Special Warfare support community. He had already done missions in-country supporting SEALS on recon missions and combat missions in Afghanistan. When he heard my prediction, he did not say I was nuts or crazy. He only asked why. After hearing my reasoning he only smiled and said, “You’re right. But I can’t tell you why because that is classified.”
Around that same time, I had a similar conversation with a lieutenant I knew in Navy Intelligence. When he heard me predict we would not find any WMDs in Iraq he also did not say I was crazy. He too only asked why I thought that in spite of everything the administration had said. After I told the lieutenant why, he simply smiled, said I was correct, but he could not tell me why I was correct because – “That information is classified.”
From those two conversations I had zero doubts about one thing. People in the lower and middle levels of our Special Warfare and Military Intelligence communities knew before we invaded Iraq that we would not find any WMDs. Since people at those levels knew I had no doubt those up the military chain of command and administration were aware of the absence of WMDs.
Consequently, I have no doubts people at the highest levels of the Bush administration knowingly and intentionally perpetrated a fraud to justify our invasion of Iraq. Did President Bush merely engage in willful ignorance as his people gave him the necessary plausible deniability while they fed him the information they knew he wanted to hear?
Frankly, I have always given the president the benefit of the doubt he did not knowingly lie. But I understand quite well how his most senior advisers could have been an information filter for him to ensure he only knew what he needed to know to justify what he/she knew he wanted to do. His advisers knew President Bush wanted to make up for his President H.W. Bush not taking Saddam down in the first Gulf War. I am not sure which is worse; George W. Bush being a puppet for his handlers or being a willing participant in the fraud that perpetuated the U.S. into waging an unnecessary war.
To my younger student peers, do not blindly trust people in power and please do not ever let a future administration repeat this kind of fraud. One of the most patriotic actions Americans can do is search for truth by respectfully questioning people with power.
