So, where are(were) those WMDs?

[Occhidiangela]

Hi,
Has four years of Bush and sound bites made us all stupid?????  Are we all operating at the two neuron level of the media clowns???

The issue was WEAPONS OF ****MASS**** DESTRUCTION, not a few tons of conventional effing explosives.  Missing or not.

Now, I understand the glamor guys and gals in the media 'of the idiots, by the idiots, and for the idiots' being unable to distinguish between the two.  And I understand, given Sturgeon's Law, how the bulk of the population of the USA and world might be fooled.  But I thought the LL was a bastion of intelligence and rationality.  Am I wrong?
--Pete
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Pete, that was one of the reasons.

What bothers me the most is the evidence that there was considerable self delusion. It bothers me almost as much as the inability of the American Public, and the Media, to think in or beyond 5-10 year time horizons when considering security problems. Yes, I risk heading toward a Minority Report sort of scenario in that regard, but given the risk of resurrected programs of WMD, how long does one wait?

Nip it in the bud?

It's an option, though not the only option.

What burns a lot of us is that we believed literally in the image of "WMD's in large quantities ready for use shortly" not programs working to stay in development while dodging UN clowns, and found that image to be, whether due to absence or a clever hiding of the evidence, a mirage. Mr Duelfer makes sobering points.

So yes, that issue got undue weight in the information campaign, with the result that the better reasons, such as they were and are, have slowly faded from view in public discourse, and that the credibility of this White House, and I'd hazard any White House for the near term, has been damaged permanently. (I won't go into the body count at this time.)

We went, and must now try to polish a turd. Joy.

Might go back to fall of 2002 to June of 2003 and read the commentary on that score, here in the Lounge. But it's water under the bridge, and my prediction that the delta between asserted and found WMD program progress would evoke a significant, thorough, and useful Congressional action seems to have run afoul of events. Your observation earlier this year, that in time the energy behind the initial public outcry would fade, has held far closer to the actual state of play.

Misdirection?

What is missing in all this talk is who and what Saddam Hussein was as a political leader. Besides being an aggressor and a ruthless SOB, he was many other things.

A survivor. A clever man at playing other stronger nations off against one another. A true understander of power, to include political and military power. An egotist who envisioned himself the next Saladin. (IIRC, Saladin too was from Tikrit.) A dictator who could affort to play the long game. He could wait out an American president, he could use time as an ally. That risk, the he would wait out the tough guy and be able to wriggle out and re start his little programs to become a problem 5-10-15 years down stream had to be considered. If you wait until WMD are used, too late to solve your problem. Hence . . . pre emption. But there is still a lot more than meets the eye to the final decision.

Fidel is still around after 45 years. Saddam had only been around 30 years as head honcho. I am glad we took him out, but am uncomfortable at the price we are paying for it, since I am all too aware of the second line in my sig.

Occhi