http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/?id=110003841
Excerpt:
Economists have a simple maxim to explain human behavior: People respond
to incentives. And if one looks at the incentives facing both the Iraqi
scientists, Unscom, and U.S. intelligence, one sees the likely roots of the
problem. Iraq was a totalitarian system in which everyone was forced to
cater to Saddam's whims. We know that his son Uday, as head of the Iraqi
Olympic committee, tortured losing athletes. We also know that during this
war, Saddam was being fed false information about the success of his forces
by commanders fearful of telling the truth. Iraqi scientists had every
incentive to exaggerate the extent of their activities in internal
communications with the regime. This appears to have been the case with the
hapless Iraqi charged with developing the toxin ricin. He told his U.S.
interrogators that he was never able to produce quantities of sufficient
purity and toxicity for weapons use, but nonetheless reported to Baghdad
that he was managing a large, successful program. It is also possible that
Saddam understood that his own people were lying or exaggerating Iraq's
capabilities, but wanted word to quietly slip out as a deterrent to the
U.S.--even as Iraq officially denied their existence.
_______________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world,
it is God's gift to humanity." - George W. Bush 1/29/03
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