[Rhodes22-list] More on WMD - Politics

[Bill Effros]

Brad,

Been there.  Done that.  See posting while you were away.

Bill Effros

Brad Haslett wrote:
> The editorial pages have been slow on the uptake over the NYT's lead 
> story,
> but here is one from New Hampshire.  There will be more.
>
> Brad
>
> -----------------------------
>
> Iraq's weapon: Oh, that nuclear bomb
>
>
>
>
> At last, the New York Times has proven Sen. John Kerry right about Iraq.
>
> The Times reported on Friday that Iraqi nuclear weapons documents 
> placed on
> a U.S. government Web site might have inadvertently spread highly 
> detailed
> nuclear weapon designs, potentially to hostile nations. But wait, there's
> more.
>
> The documents in question were nuclear weapons plans captured in Iraq. 
> The
> Times reported on Friday that the papers were so advanced and so detailed
> that they could significantly advance nuclear programs in nations such as
> Iran.
>
> To quote the a paragraph buried in the Times story, "Among the dozens of
> documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990s and in 
> 2002 for
> United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq had abandoned its
> unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war.
>
> Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein's scientists were on the 
> verge of
> building an atom bomb, as little as a year away."
>
> Saddam was "this close" to obtaining a nuclear weapon? What 
> vindication for
> Sen. Kerry!
>
> Remember, it was in 2002 -- the very year stamped on some of these 
> documents
> -- that Kerry said, "Why is Saddam Hussein attempting to develop nuclear
> weapons when most nations don't even try. . . It would be naive to the 
> point
> of grave danger not to believe that, left to his own devices, Saddam 
> Hussein
> will provoke, misjudge, or stumble into a future, more dangerous
> confrontation with the civilized world. He has as much as promised it."
>
> Alas, had President Gore only listened to his hawkish comrade from
> Massachusetts and not refused to invade Iraq back in 2003. We might have
> stopped the Butcher of Baghdad from acquiring his nuclear arsenal and
> selling bombs to terrorists while we had the chance.
>
> Had Texas Gov. George W. Bush won the 2000 election, maybe things 
> would be
> different. Maybe Manhattan and Los Angeles would still exist.
>
> Maybe we would have lost thousands of American troops in a war to take 
> out a
> rogue dictator and establish a non-hostile regime but not lost 
> hundreds of
> thousands of American civilians after pretending that diplomacy with 
> maniacs
> was a sound strategy.
>
> Oh, wait. What were we thinking? Bush did win. We did invade Iraq. New 
> York
> and L.A. are still there. The American people, Democrats and Republicans
> alike, did have the stomach for standing up to rogue regimes that were
> seeking nuclear material and blatantly threatening the United States.
>
> Alas, it looks like the American people have now lost their will to 
> stand up
> to thugs who want to kill us. They appear on the verge of choosing 
> retreat
> when the going gets tough, just as Osama bin Laden long ago predicted we
> would do.
>
> At least, before we gave up the fight, we stopped one-third of the 
> Axis of
> Evil from going nuclear.
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