Dan Minette asked
I remember you making a virtual bet that we'd find a smoking gun
for WMD in Iraq by about now. Any guesses as to why we didn't?
One very distressing reason is that the US did not put enough
resources on the job. Before the war, the US government said that
Iraq contains hundreds of suspect sites and that most are harmless.
As a practical matter, the US should have sent 20000 or more troops to
look at the various sites and to search for more sites. The troops
would not have been able to do much except clear harmless sites and
guard suspect sites -- but that would have been enough. And that
could have been done over a few days in the middle of April.
Remember, the goal would not have been to find a `smoking gun' but to
have cleared some sites and to have provided guards for those sites
that appeared dangerous to ordinary soldiers.
But the Bush Administration did not do this. There are three
possible explanations:
* the Administration knew that Saddam Hussein was bluffing when he
gave the UN inspectors a hard time; he really did not have any
banned weapons or not many of them: perhaps a few long range
missiles, some mobile labs, and some equipment to make poison gas.
This possibility suggests that Bush lied. It also suggests that
the Bush Administration was incompetent at lying, since it would
make more sense for it to act surprised when later inspectors
found little.
* the Administration recognized that its prime hold on the US comes
from fear of terrorism, and it hopes for another attack like that
of 9/11 before the next election. By giving looters a chance, it
increased the risk that terrorists will gain powerful weapons.
Note that physically, the Sept. 11 attack did not do much damage
to the US as a whole. But it enabled the Bush Administration to
focus on fear and its promise of security, and to win the 2002
elections, even though the administration has managed the economy
in such a way that many are hurt, and long term prospects for
ordinary people are diminished.
This possibility requires great cynicism.
* the Administration was simply incompetent, and did not send enough
soldiers to check out sites before looters came.
This possibility requires believing that politicians who increased
their party's vote in an off-year election could not apply that
same talent to managing a politically important part of their
years in office.
Note that these three alternatives remain in place even if someone
finds stocks of poison gas making equipment or a dozen unfired SCUDs.
Please suggest another alternative, bearing in mind that the US
government either did not put 20000 soldiers on the search 6 weeks
ago, or if it did, did not talk about the action.
--
Robert J. Chassell Rattlesnake Enterprises
http://www.rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.teak.cc [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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