That’s the $64,000 question. Perhaps Saddam moved them. Perhaps they were destroyed ten years ago. The best evidence
from David Kay (whom I accept as the utmost authority on the subject) is that the WMD are not in Iraq. Did they move them
to Syria? Unlikely, since the Syrians know what would happen to them (which is why they booted Uday and Qusay out of their
country when they fled there during the war). Personally, I think they were destroyed in the mid-90’s (either under
Saddam’s orders or by the scientists on their own). But all indications are that Saddam himself thought he had Weapons
of Mass Destruction (that’s why he played shell games with the inspectors and issued protective gear to his troops at
the start of the war). In fact, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote about an incident in 1999 in Karbala that happened
after several failed planned Shiite uprisings. Iraqi troops surrounded the city (clad in biohazard suits) and just stood
there. As a result, the people of Karbala panicked and locked themselves inside. With crap like this going on, what possible
reason would the Bush Administration have for believing that Saddam had destroyed his WMD?
The bottom line is this:
We would never have known if Saddam still had WMD or not if we hadn’t gone to war.
With all due respect to Sean Penn (none) his declaration that Iraq didn’t have WMD did nothing to ease my mind.
Now
we know for sure. Scratch Iraq off the list of countries we need to worry about. And while you’re at it, scratch
Lybia off the list. See how this works? Remember, it wasn’t up to Bush to "prove" that Iraq had WMD. It was up to Saddam
to prove that he destroyed them. He was unable and unwilling to do that for 12 years. The only option was to force inspectors
back under the threat of war.
Even Hans Blix has acknowledged that without American troops on his border, Saddam would
never have allowed weapons inspectors back in. When Saddam started playing hide-the-salami with the inspectors again,
we had no choice but to go to war. Actually, we had two options: (1) Go to war and kick him out, allowing inspectors unfettered
access to weapons sites and scientists, or (2) Stand down, allow the U.N. to continue to play Saddam’s shell game, bring
the troops home, and look like a bunch of pussies to the Arab world. Few people realize the importance of "saving face" or
"losing face" to the Arab street. After the fall of Fagdad, Arabs in neighboring countries said they were shocked at how quickly
Saddam’s regime fell. One guy even said "We Arabs are all talk, but the Americans actually DO what they say they will
do." Remember that. It’s important.
