500 WMDs

[Dr. Shane]

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You think that we went to war in Iraq because they possessed 500 aging chemical artillery shells that even the Iraqis could not find

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Not what I think, that was what Hans Blix said. Furthermore, the sarin is still deadly and could still be used by terrorists, it is the mustard gas that is no longer extreamely lethal.

The Iraqis led coalition forces to many of these WMDs. These 500 WMDs were found little by little. This is not one single find.

Again, the world intelligence community believed Saddam had resumed his WMD programs. We expected to find WMD labs and recently made weapons. These 500 were in violation of the ceasefire agreement. These 500 WMDs do show that Saddam was lying. Nations do not lose WMDs. These are not like hand granades, bullets or even rifles that are issued out to the common soldier. WMDs are made or purchased and a close inventory is kept of them. Nations that have them know exactly where they are and how many they have. To say that Saddam lost these is to say he was a very incompentant dictator which is possible but unlikely.

It is not totally accurate to say these are not the WMDs we expected to find. We did not believe that Saddam had destroyed all of his pre-1991 WMDs. However these are only a very small portion of what we expected to find. We expected to find a whole lot more of them and more recently made.

The far right is making too big of a deal about this. I am thinking of politicians like Rick Santorum and commentators like Sean Hanity. The far left is minimizing it too much. I am once again in the middle. I don't want to go with the far right and say this justifies the war. However I don't want to go with the far left and brush this off as insignificant either.