PCG's Joel Hilliker Saying Reasons to Invade Iraq in 2003 "Are Sound" (2002)

In commemoration of the commencement of armed intervention to overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime then ruling Iraq on March 20, 2003 here are some of the posts on this blog that has discussed the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003.

Also relevant to this most painful topic are the following posts:

• PCG's Stephen Flurry Defending President Bush from "Biased" "Antiwar" Media (2004)

• How Bush and Co. Led the US into War in Iraq

• Also worth consulting: Buying the War (PBS).

But in this post I wish to note that in the November 2002 issue of PCG's recruitment magazine, The Philadelphia Trumpet, Joel Hilliker wrote an article entitled What President Bush Doesn't Know. But PCG's leaders are false prophets so they did not foresee that the case to invade Iraq would not withstand later scrutiny. In this article Hilliker assumed the Bush Administration's portrayal of Iraq was sound and correct.

The argument to strike Iraq is compelling, and the reasons are sound. The Trumpet does not take sides in political issues, but an objective look at the facts highlights the very real nature of the Iraqi threat and the potentially disastrous consequences of failing to contain it. Few Western nations contest this, at least in principle.

What is interesting, however, is how isolated the U.S. is in making such brash statements about Iraq. While many nations acknowledge that Saddam Hussein’s regime is a problem, the U.S. is virtually alone in its insistence that decisive action be taken swiftly. In fact, many nations are viewing the U.S.’s confrontational approach with a certain contempt.

Instead of foreseeing that the Bush Administration's case to invade Iraq was highly flawed Hilliker instead complained that Iran was the real threat.

So who is the king of the south? Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has been pointing the finger at one Middle Eastern nation in particular for almost a decade: Iran! ... Within the Middle East, all indications are that IRAN will pose the much greater problem in the long run.  

And what exactly was, to use Hilliker's words, the compelling argument and sound reasons to invade Iraq at that time?

Some indication may seen in an editorial article by Gerald Flurry which was discussed in a previous post which is reposted below (Gerald Flurry on the Eve of the Iraq War (2003)). In this article from early 2003 Gerald Flurry assumes the Bush Administration was correct that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Here is the post discussing how Gerald Flurry described events on the eve of the start of the Iraq War.

***

Just before the US invaded Iraq in 2003 Gerald Flurry wrote an editorial discussing the immanent invasion. It was entitled Secretary Powell's UN Report: The Big Lesson We Failed to Learn.

For 12 years, Saddam Hussein has made a mockery of the U.S. and the United Nations. After Secretary of State Colin Powell’s report to the UN on February 5, many people still say there is no smoking gun. Those people probably wouldn’t see a smoking gun unless Saddam shot them personally. 

It is now 2014. Who was right? Secretary Powell on that day or those who doubted him?

Most people also refuse to see a connection between Saddam and the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Saddam attacked Iran and Kuwait. He used chemical warfare against Iran and his own people in Iraq. He tried to assassinate former U.S. President George H.W. Bush (reason enough for America to declare war against him). Still people refuse to believe he is connected to al-Qaeda!

Where is our common sense?

The acts that Gerald Flurry cites here does not prove or even indicate that Saddam Hussein was allied with al Qaeda.

Here Gerald Flurry quotes Secretary Powell's report. Alas, it later turned out that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction. Secretary Powell was greatly mistaken here. "That Prophet" Gerald Flurry completely failed to foresee Secretary Powell's mistake.

Iraq is estimated to have between “100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent” (ibid.). Here is another statement from Secretary Powell’s report: “[W]hen Iraq finally admitted having these weapons in 1995, the quantities were vast. Less than a teaspoon of dry anthrax … in an envelope shut down the United States Senate in the fall of 2001. This forced several hundred people to undergo emergency medical treatment and killed two postal workers .…

“Iraq declared 8,500 liters of anthrax, but UNSCOM estimates that Saddam Hussein could have produced 25,000 liters. If concentrated into this dry form, this amount would be enough to fill tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of teaspoons. And Saddam Hussein has not verifiably accounted for even one teaspoonful of this deadly material.

“And that is my third point. And it is key. The Iraqis have never accounted for all of the biological weapons they admitted they had and we know they had. They have never accounted for all the organic material used to make them. And they have not accounted for many of the weapons filled with these agents such as there are 400 bombs. This is evidence, not conjecture. This is true. This is all well-documented. …

“The source [of confirmation of Iraq’s mobile biological agent production program] was an eyewitness, an Iraqi chemical engineer who supervised one of these facilities. He actually was present during biological agent production runs. He was also at the site when an accident occurred in 1998. TWELVE TECHNICIANS DIED FROM EXPOSURE TO BIOLOGICAL AGENTS” (emphasis mine throughout). 

Gerald Flurry then expands on this topic.

One teaspoon of anthrax shut down the U.S. Senate! Two postal workers were killed and others were made ill.

These chemical and biological agents depict a reality of horror beyond anything we can even imagine! ...

Imagine. One drop of the deadly VX nerve agent will kill in minutes! One drop! The Iraqis have four tons! And this report is from the son-in-law who was killed when he returned to Iraq—coaxed back by Saddam. At one time this son-in-law was considered to be Saddam’s replacement. He was in a position to know what was being done in Iraq. 

Maybe that was true then, but when US forces conquered Iraq and inspected things for themselves they found nothing. Turned out the UN inspectors were actually quite effective in preventing Saddam Hussein from maintain such an arsenal. This is all nonsense. "That Prophet" Gerald Flurry completely failed to foresee that.

Gerald Flurry then quotes Secretary Powell to assert that al Qaeda was trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction from Iraq.

Gerald Flurry speaks of Saddam Hussein's alleged link with al Qaeda as something that is most obvious, like saying the sky is blue.

Of course it was later revealed that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction so Saddam Hussein could not give them to al Qaeda even if he wanted to do so. "That Prophet" Gerald Flurry completely failed to foresee these facts.

Powell went on to tell the story of an al-Qaeda operative who is now detained. “This senior al-Qaeda terrorist was responsible for one of al-Qaeda’s training camps in Afghanistan. His information comes firsthand from his personal involvement at senior levels of al-Qaeda. He says bin Laden and his top deputy in Afghanistan, deceased al-Qaeda leader Muhammad Atif, did not believe that al-Qaeda labs in Afghanistan were capable enough to manufacture these chemical or biological agents. They needed to go somewhere else. They had to look outside of Afghanistan for help. Where did they go? Where did they look? They went to Iraq. … And UNLESS WE ACT, WE ARE CONFRONTING AN AN EVEN MORE FRIGHTENING FUTURE.”

It defies imagination to think Saddam would not be connected to al-Qaeda! Look at his history.

And let’s not forget, America is the number-one terrorist target. We have already suffered mightily at their hands. 

In fact Saddam Hussein was not connected to al Qaeda. Secretary Powell was wrong.

Gerald Flurry then ends his editorial by alluding to the second coming which Armstrongites have been breathlessly proclaiming will soon occur continuously since the 1930s.

So much bad news. But look what it is directly connected to—the best news this world has ever heard! Those days WILL BE shortened. The sooner we believe it, the better our future will be!

The big lesson we have failed to learn is that man cannot solve the chemical, biological and nuclear warfare problem. Only God can. When we learn this lesson and truly turn to God, we will solve this horrendous nightmare.

Some "Prophet" Gerald Flurry proved to be. He did not foresee that the US government's case against Iraq was largely made up of nonsense and was soon afterwards proved to be completely wrong.

This proves once again that Gerald Flurry does not have some special insight into world events that allows him to foresee events before they happen. He is just like the normal people who pay the three tithes that PCG's ministers like him live off of. He only pretends to be better then them. Morally speaking he is not.