The Senate testimony of David Kay -- head of the U.S. operation to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- came as a surprise to no one except the right-wing supporters of President George W. Bush.
There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Nor were there any during the runup to the war, when Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and Bush himself were telling the American people and the United Nations that the weapons not only existed, but that the administration knew exactly where they were and in exactly what quantities.
Either they were lying or they were grievously wrong and, today, more than 500 brave American soldiers, 100 of our allies and thousands of Iraqis are dead because of it. Bush's defenders were quick to spin Kay's testimony. Everybody thought the weapons were there, they said. Even the French. Even Bill Clinton.
The argument misses the point, since neither the French nor Clinton launched a bloody invasion based on their beliefs, whatever they may have been.
Furthermore, "everybody" didn't think the weapons were there.
Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector prior to the war, told anybody who would listen that there was no credible threat.
And Scott Ritter, the ranking U.S. inspector on the UN team, argued passionately that no weapons existed.
Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was sent to Africa by the CIA to determine whether the Iraqis were trying to buy enriched uranium, came back and said they weren't.
But no one in the Bush administration wanted to listen, since they had been planning on invading Iraq since shortly after the 2000 election. This was confirmed last month by former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who sat in on the meetings.
For their efforts, Blix was denounced as a know-nothing, Ritter as a traitor and O'Neill as a senile old man by Bush's spin doctors. Wilson's wife, CIA agent Valerie Plame, was "outed" by administration officials in retribution for Wilson's criticism.
Bush now says the real reason he went to war in Iraq was to effect "regime change" there.
Hopefully, come November, the American people will adopt a regime change policy here.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | February 3 2004 |