The Road to the Iraq War | 3. Mushroom Clouds

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

To start a war of choice, you need a casus belli—a case for war. Why did the Bush administration settle on weapons of mass destruction as their case for war? And how did they make that case to the American people? Want more Slow Burn? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately access all episodes of Slow Burn (and your other favorite Slate podcasts) completely ad-free. Plus, you’ll unlock subscriber-exclusive bonus episodes that bring you behind-the-scenes on the making of the show. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/slowburnplus to get access wherever you listen. Season 5 of Slow Burn is produced by Noreen Malone, Jayson De Leon, and Sophie Summergrad. Mixing by Merritt Jacob. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Are you ready for a Monzo business bank account? It's made to help you navigate cash flow and tax season.
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0:23.7	Tees and sees apply. Soul traders or limited company directors in the UK can apply.
0:28.0	If there's one thing Americans know about the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it's that the Bush administration
0:35.3	said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and it turned out that he didn't.
0:41.4	Weapons of Mass Destruction, WMD.
0:44.6	The phrase had been around for a while, but it wasn't in common usage until 2002.
0:49.5	That's when it took off.
0:51.2	The American Dialect Society named it Word of the Year.
0:54.0	Iraq is in possession of weapons of mass destruction.
0:57.0	We know they have weapons of mass destruction.
0:59.0	Weapons of mass destruction.
1:00.0	Weapons of mass destruction. in the context of Iraq
1:04.1	WMD mainly referred to a few things chemical weapons like mustard gas
1:09.4	biological weapons like anthrax, or, most frightening, nuclear weapons.
1:16.8	To understand why the Bush administration thought Iraq had WMD, you have to go back to the
1:21.3	early 90s.
1:22.3	The United Nations wanted weapons inspectors
	...

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