Iraq and WMD
Published on April 17th, 2003 by J.T in PoliticsBrad DeLong of the Semi-Daily Journal is asking the same question that I and many others are asking, “Where are Saddam’s WMDs?”
Mr. DeLong states:
Where are Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction?
I was certain–certain–that we had lots of hard intelligence telling us of Saddam’s large quantities of chemical and biological weapons, and his ongoing nuclear program. Otherwise, the decision to invade Iraq made no sense: it might have made sense for an Administration that believed the U.S. had a humanitarian mission to take down cruel and genocidal dictators when it could do so easily, but not for the Bush II Administration that was so certain back in 2001 that it “did not do nation building.”
So where are they? Did they never exist? Was Bush lying to us and Congress all the time? Was our intelligence grossly defective? Or are Saddam’s WMD now in the hands of Al Qaeda and its ilk–people who cannot be deterred from using them because they do not hope to die peacefully in bed?
According to the AP, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld stated today the U.S. military’s search for chemical and biological weapons is unlikely to succeed until Iraqis lead American forces to them. Yet, the Bush administration stated in days leading up to the war that they knew where the WMDs were located and they knew that Saddam had them. If this is true, wouldn’t it be logical that the first places they would look for WMDs are the places that they would most likely find them?
More troubling is that Secretary Rumsfeld told a reporter that there is nothing that the U.S. can do to avoid being accused of planting chemical and biological weapons. Although, I always thought that using impartial multinational weapons inspectors was an excellent way to search possible weapons sites, which could undoubtedly help the U.S.’s worldwide public relations. Unforturnately, it seems that the Bush administration is in no hurry to allow U.N. inspectors back into Iraq.
