Commentary

Where are the WMDs?

Now, it can be asked: was U.S. President George W. Bush, Jr. lying through his teeth when he said that war is the only way Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) will be removed. After more than three weeks of war, coalition forces have yet to find any WMD, with British officials themselves admitting there may not be any WMD to be found after all.

By Alexander Martin Remollino

Bulatlat.com

Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. This was the main reason given by United States (U.S.) President George W. Bush for going to war with Iraq.

“Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised,” Bush said in his March 17 declaration of war. “This regime has already used weapons of mass destruction against Iraq's neighbors and against Iraq's people.”

Citing what he called Iraq’s “history of reckless aggression in the Middle East,” Bush explained that the presence of weapons of mass destruction in the said country makes it a threat to the world. Because of this, he said, there was a need to use force against Iraq. He gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his two sons 48 hours to leave Iraq or face military force.

Saddam Hussein and his sons refused to leave, and on March 20 war erupted.

Two days later Bush would repeat that dismantling Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction is the primary aim of the war. “Our mission is clear, to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.”

But where are they?

However, as early as two days into the war—the same day Bush reiterated its primary aim—officials of the Bush administration had to face questions from the press about why the coalition forces (mostly American and British troops) that attacked Iraq had not found weapons of mass destruction.

Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the war in Iraq, said in a news conference in Qatar on March 22 that finding Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction was among the eight objectives of the war. He admitted, however, that finding these weapons “is work that lies in front of us rather than work we have already accomplished.”

That Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction is a certainty, he added. “There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction,” he said. “As this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.”

Early into the war, Fox News reported that a team of coalition soldiers found biological weapons in southern Iraq. It turned that what was discovered were empty shells. The Pentagon itself would later rule out the report.

In the last week of March, evidence of the development of weapons of mass destruction was unearthed by coalition forces in northern Iraq. However, that area is not controlled by Saddam Hussein; it is controlled by the Kurds, who have been reported in some American media quarters to be funded by the U.S.

Last April 6, in a radio interview, British Home Secretary David Blunkett admitted that they may not be able to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after all.

That same day the U.S. military said it had not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. “The places it's most likely to be found we haven't even gotten to them yet,” Brig. Gen Vincent Brooks said in a briefing in Qatar that day.

Brig. Gen. Brooks, however, suspects that the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction is not yet over. “We are pleased that it hasn't been used to date but not satisfied that the threat has gone,” he said.

War rages on

Opponents of the war on Iraq have commented that the non-discovery of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq would deal a major moral blow against it.

Meanwhile, the war that was primarily intended to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction rages on. According to the latest counts more than a thousand civilians have died in Iraq since the war began. Bulatlat.com
 

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