Face facts on Iraq's chemical weapons

It amazes me how Democratic apologists rewrite history. In Richard Cohen's May 13 column about terrorists and Dick Cheney, he repeats the Democratic Party mantra that "everybody knows that Iraq did not have chemical or biological weapons." It's awful when facts trample over someone's attempt to rewrite history.

Fact: Iraq used mustard gas during its 8-year war against Iran, in 1980-1988 and killed Iranians by the hundreds of thousands.

Fact: Iraq used poison gas, a neurological agent, against its own citizens in Northern Iraq and killed more than 200,000. I've seen the photos of the dead babies in the streets

Fact: Iraq employed a British-trained, micro biologist named Rihrb Taha, also known as "Dr. Germ," to head up their biological weapons program, and also Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan Al Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" who was executed as a war criminal for using chemical weapons against Iranian civilians.

So factually, it's pretty hard to believe Mr. Cohen's pronouncement, that, oh, there was no proof and everybody knew that Iraq didn't have chemical or biological weapons. He dismisses facts as irrelevant to conceal his deceit. Then he rambles on about, how we went into Iraq with virtually no dialogue or debate, ignoring the fact that there was vigorous debate in the United Nations and years and years of resolutions against Iraq, an American president who appeared before the United Nations, and it was the U.S. Congress that authorized President Bush to undertake Military action in Iraq. Mr. Cohen needs to get his facts straight, before he keeps selling his Democratic Party Kool-Aid and lies.

Stephen Weiss

Naperville