Punditry

This page has developed a solid relationship with Mike C over at Cubs Pundit. Now, this page does not endorse his whacko, far right wing, reactionary, blind-following-the-GOP-blankly political views, but then, who am I to judge? And he's definitely entitled to espouse whatever opinions he likes (as is everyone else).

A few days ago, Mike postulated about why a story about the discovery in Iraq of some missiles with sarin gas in them didn't get more play in the mainstream press. Well, here's the reason.

The Washington Post reported that the missiles contained no sarin. Big shock.

What have we learned about Iraq and WMD in the past 18 months?

1) While Iraq had, and used, gas weapons at one time, they had little or none when the war started in 2003
2) If Iraq did have gas weapons, they were in no shape to be used against US citizens on a moment's notice as had been postulated.
3) Iraq's nuclear program was non-existent and probably effectively destroyed by the Israelis in 1981 when the IDF destroyed the French-built, Tammuz 1 reactor.

Were there plenty of reasons to go get Saddam and remove him from power? Sure. Were some of them valid for starting a war? Sure. Were the valid reasons the ones that our government articulated? No.

The war was started by selling the US public a bag of fear. Why? Fear sells. If only this administration had trusted the public enough to tell us why we needed a war with the real, more difficult to understand reasons: Democracy needs a seed to grow in the Middle East; Saddam is smuggling oil through Syria which is used to finance terrorists; Liberating Iraq would allow us to stop buying oil from Saudi Arabia -- the REAL source of financial aid to terrorism; Saddam was a brutal dictator who needed to go as badly as Milosovic did.

While those reasons were articulated, they all took a back seat to the fear mongering of, "He'll sell WMD to terrorists and they will use them on US soil." Americans are smart. We'll get it. Tell us the hard reasons and we'll support you. Choose the easy-but-shady route and we lose trust. And that's why Bush is in trouble for re-election and John Frankenstein Kerry actually has a chance.