Political discussions on social media can easily turn into a "he said, she said" back-and-forth, where issues are debated and defined by who was in charge at the time. 

Case in point, Iraq and weapons of mass destruction.  Mention "weapons of mass destruction," and you might remember President George W. Bush talking about those weapons in Saddam Hussein's Iraq back in the early 2000's.

Critics of Bush say that there really weren't any weapons of mass destruction, and that he used that as an excuse to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power.  Supporters of Bush on social media, however, note that another president was the first to bring up Iraq, Saddam Hussein, and weapons of mass destruction.  In a recent meme circulated on social media websites, the claim was made that it was, in fact, President Bill Clinton who did that.  Here's what the meme said:

"I gave a speech in 1996 about Iraq having WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) and stuff. I said we needed a regime change for the security of our nation and to free the Iraqi people from an evil dictator. In 1998 I signed the Iraq Liberation Act. Ya’ll blamed it on Bush. Thanks for that!"

Never ones to pass up a good social media claim, our partners at PolitiFact Florida took a look at this claim.  PolitiFact reporter Joshua Gillin says that the meme's claim rates MOSTLY FALSE on the Truth-O-Meter.  Gillin says that there's a lot of social media stretching of the truth going on here.

"On the surface, it would appear that Bill Clinton did discuss these things," said Gillin.  "However, when you look at the content of his messages, the messages were much different than what George W. Bush said.  Clinton called for efforts to contain chemical weapons usage under the Saddam Hussein regime. but there was no discussion of military intervention or nuclear weapons."
 
Gillin noted that, while Clinton supported regime change, the difference between Clinton and Bush was the way that regime change was approached.  "The Clinton approach was about giving support and leadership to home-grown opposition to Saddam Hussein," said Gillin.  "That's very different than George W. Bush, who was more interested in invading the country and deposing of Hussein."

Gillin points out that, while both presidents called for a regime change and both mentioned weapons of mass destruction in one form or another, the implication that Bill Clinton said first what George W. Bush did is off the mark, earning this social media meme a MOSTLY FALSE rating on PolitiFact's Truth-O-Meter.

 

SOURCES: Clinton called for Iraqi regime change?