WMD

Just read a moving speech by Senator Robert S. Bird. Please take a few minutes to read it, as it accurately details statements our Fearless Leader and his advisors have been making over the past two years concerning Iraq's possesion of Weapons of Mass Destruction, the [fictional] Iraq – Al-Queda connection, Iraq's quest for nuclear arms, etc.

Two weeks ago, our own military said it was going to stop looking in the places we thought there were WMD – where, in April, Donald Rumsfeld said that we knew there would be WMD – and were going to look in other locations. The fact no weapons have been found leads one to believe that they have been moved to other countries — Syria being the most likely candidate — or they never existed. The former argument is too terrible to consider; it will certainly give our leaders the excuse to promote further pre-emptive attacks. It may, indeed, facilitate the sort of attacks on our country which we thought this war would help prevent.

So, being an optimist, allow me to make a simple argument in favor of the proposition that there are no longer any WMD's in Iraq nor were any available to Saddam Hussein. I'll frame it as a question, a question that has not yet been answered to my satisfaction:

If Saddam Hussein had access to weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons, etc, why didn't he use them? Certainly, Hussein had no compunction about using missles against a superior force in the first Gulf War. He used Scud missles against the allies, against Kuwait, and even against Israel. What prevented him from using all those weapons, which he could reportedly call up within 45 minutes?

The most basic human instinct is self-preservation. And Hussein's actions since the first Gulf War reflect a healthy regard for his own preservation (if not the preservation of his country's people). Our Fearless Leader certainly gave sufficient warning of an imminent attack. If I had been in Hussein's shoes, I would have been drawing up battle strategies immediatley following the Axis of Evil speech. But even if Hussein had waited til that last 24-hour ultimatum, he had several 45-minute periods in which to arm his supposed biochemical arsenal.

Again, the most natural instinct when attacked is to strike back. How is it possible that Hussein resisted this urge, when past history suggests that he is willing to sacrifice thousands of Iraqis in order to maintain his power?

To my mind, the fact that not a single weapon of mass destruction was used during GWII is a powerful argument that those weapons were a mass delusion on the part of the American administration.