Friday, Jul 4, 2008
Hasty, incomplete news reports have suggested that coalition troops found chemical weapons, or even nukes, in Iraq. They haven't -- at least not yet. And the rest of world is watching skeptically.
Apr 16, 2003 | Responding last June to Iraqi denials that it possessed weapons of mass destruction, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told U.S. troops in Bahrain that Saddam Hussein was "a world-class liar" whose claims were "false, not true, inaccurate and typical." Then came President Bush's Sept. 12, 2002, demand at the United Nations that Iraq "immediately and unconditionally forswear, disclose, and remove or destroy all weapons of mass destruction" and Secretary of State Colin Powell's Feb. 5, 2003, follow-up presentation to the U.N. of alleged evidence of WMD, as those weapons have come to be known.
For now, everyone is staying on script: We fought the war to get rid of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and we still intend to do so -- as soon as we find them. "There's strong evidence and no question about the fact there are weapons of mass destruction," Powell asserted Sunday on BBC1's "Breakfast With Frost." "We will find weapons of mass destruction." That same day Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of U.S. Central Command, told Fox News that he has "absolute confidence that there are weapons of mass destruction inside this country." White House spokesman Ari Fleischer noted last week that "we know Saddam Hussein is there, but we haven't found him yet, either."
Weapons of mass destruction are "what this war was about -- and it is about," Fleischer said.
But none have been found yet.
"When we have something to report, it will duly get reported, of course," Fleischer added Tuesday.
The American media has been rife with false alarms -- scary-sounding reports from embedded reporters -- that might give the public the wrong impression that a sarin canister here or a mobile nuclear lab there has been discovered. The rest of the world knows full well that nothing's been found yet -- at least that we know of. International groups, such as the United Nations, have requested access to the country so that its observers can also document any discoveries of such weapons. For now, the Pentagon has essentially said, "Trust us" -- and has not promised any participation in the weapons searches. On Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Vince Brooks, spokesman for Central Command in Qatar, wouldn't say "who might be invited" on the search for WMD. "Right now, our searches are done under military control and it's not appropriate to add anyone to that equation," Brooks said, adding that the military will keep its options open once discoveries are made.
While the United States maintains its focus on restoring order to Baghdad and suppressing what pockets of resistance still remain, questions about WMD simmer. Where are they? Could Saddam have moved them to Syria -- the latest terrorist threat concerning the White House? There is the possibility that we will never find them. But almost as pressing a concern is the possibility that we do find them -- and much of the rest of world doesn't believe us.
- - - - - - - - - -
To some observers (almost all supporters of the war) finding WMD seems less important in the wake of the liberation jubilation. On April 5, British Home Secretary David Blunkett told BBC Radio 4's "Today" program that he hoped no weapons of mass destruction were found "because the danger of finding them means there is a danger of them being used, not only against our own forces but also against the Iraqi people, even by accident." While such a situation would propel "an interesting debate," Blunkett said it wouldn't matter to him. "I would rejoice in freeing people from a regime that is at this moment actually executing and torturing those who would otherwise have already made a deal to capitulate to us." As Lee Feinstein, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former deputy director of Clinton's State Department said, "Looting aside, the fall of Baghdad and the relief that greeted it by an overwhelming number of Iraqis bolsters the legitimacy of this action tremendously."
But it hasn't taken long for those global cynics to start piping up. "Nothing was found, and even at the last moment of their struggle for survival, the Iraqi regime did not use [WMD]," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in St. Petersburg on Friday, after his summit with fellow war opponents German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac. "They either don't have them, or they are in such condition that they could not be used. And this raises the advisability of such an action. What does this mean? What was the war for?" The war is not technically over, of course, so Putin's conclusion is premature. But he's not alone in his criticism. On Monday, Indonesia's foreign ministry spokesperson, Marty Natalegawa, said that "with regard to the alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction, so far the U.S. had yet to discover any evidence."
Get Salon in your mailbox!