I've seen some claim, in defending the architects of the Iraq War, that Saddam's goal was to fool everyone, including his generals, into believing he had WMDs, the implication being you can't fault Bush for also getting this wrong. This is simply PR spin from war supporters. 1/n
This idea first started being spread as early as 2003, right after it was clear there were no WMDs. Here's an op-ed by R. James Woolsey, former CIA Director and Iraq War supporter. It was published in The Weekly Standard and republished at CBS News 2/n cbsnews.com/news/did-sadda… 
This revisionism is misleading, as there was no conscious plan to fool his own regime, and no desire to leave any ambiguity with the rest of the world after mid-2002, when it became clear the US might invade. 3/n
Attempts to remove all traces of WMDs were treated as evidence the regime still had them by a US intelligence community that was facing pressure from the top to justify war. 4/n
This may sound excusable given Saddam's history, but the way to remove any ambiguities would have been to allow weapons inspectors to finish their job, or at least help them in their search. The Bush administration did not do this. 5/n
Regarding Saddam fooling the rest of his regime, here is the transcript of a recording with other top officials in 1998. He tells them "We have nothing; not even one screw." There was no plan to lie to his generals. 5/n
If some in the regime were fooled, it was ironically in part because they were listening to American leaders and the press. The desire of the Bush administration to go to war put overwhelming pressure on US intelligence but also fooled Iraqi officials themselves. 6/n
In sum, there was no conscious plan from Saddam to fool members of his regime. He tried to maintain ambiguity towards the outside world, but that ended in 2002, at which point he did everything he could to comply with weapons inspectors and avoid getting deposed. 7/n
The Bush admin didn't care about inspections though, they wanted war. Almost two decades of debate about WMDs has stopped us from seeing the bigger picture. It would be more excusable if the Bush administration simply screwed up the intelligence, but the truth is much worse. 8/n
