So, Just Where Are Those Weapons?

by Robert J. Romano

February 27th, 2004

*Updated August 12th, 2004

In expanding the war on terrorism into Iraq in 2003, one of the justifications used for the liberation, among many valid reasons, was Iraq's noncompliance of UN Security Council Resolutions by its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and other banned weapons programs, like long-range missiles.  Nearly one year since the Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) began, the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) has been diligently searching for and dismantling Iraq's former programs.  While the unaccounted for stockpiles of WMD remain unaccounted for, and are still being searched for, the importance of locating them has been neglected by partisans who feel "betrayed," who would just as soon assume that they never existed and believe that Iraq really was complying with the Resolutions.  Even further buried by talk of "a nation deceived" is that the efforts of our brave men and women in uniform in the field of battle are being ignored, despite their enormous success, and to the important issue of the stockpiles, what has been found by ISG so far.  
        In Dr. David Kay's testimony before Congress on October 2nd, 2003, the former chief U.S. weapons inspector stated: "We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002.  The discovery of these deliberate concealment efforts have come about both through the admissions of Iraqi scientists and officials concerning information they deliberately withheld and through physical evidence of equipment and activities that ISG has discovered that should have been declared to the UN." In other words, Iraq was in material breach of its international obligations, and of the ceasefire agreement which followed the first Gulf War.
        Also mentioned in Dr. Kay's testimony is that the unaccounted for stockpiles are relatively small, and "[i]t is important to keep in mind that even the bulkiest materials we are searching for, in the quantities we would expect to find, can be concealed in spaces not much larger than a two car garage..." This raises the disturbing question: just where are the stockpiles that the UN had confirmed that Iraq had possessed?
        While some view this as an opportunity to put our intelligence agencies on "trial" for being "wrong," and perhaps even the chance to downgrade our ability to gather such important information, these blind partisans are missing a very serious point: Iraq was not disarming.  In fact, Iraq was concealing both the capability and the intent to reconstitute her stockpiles, hardly meeting the legal conditions set forth by the disarmament regime following the first Gulf War.  She had violated Resolution after Resolution, defied the international community, and was a grave and gathering danger.  Left alone, Iraq had hoped, through deception, to have the sanctions imposed on her lifted, and once accomplished, to fully reconstitute her arsenals.  Yes, the inspections were in many ways successful, and the hard work of the inspection regime was honorable, carried out by individuals who put their lives on the line to disarm a genocidal dictator.  And yet their work was incomplete, and it was not until OIF commenced that we have discovered the larger extent of both the programs that were in place, but also of Iraq's involvement with terrorist organizations, which were previously underestimated.  So, yes, the President's special commission investigating contemporary intelligence-gathering, dating before OIF, is extremely important, and will improve our capabilities, but such a commission should not be made to obscure what has been accomplished by disarming Iraq and liberating her people.
        The sad truth is that those who are attempting to prove that America was "misled" are distorting the facts, and have more of an interest in reacquiring political power than in finding the missing stockpiles of WMD which we know Iraq had possessed.  Yes, the world was misled... by the brutal and deceitful regime of Hussein's Iraq.  What's worse is that these partisans are blindly attempting, some unwittingly, to revise history, and are willing to serve as apologists for a genocidal tyrant simply so they can play "Gotcha!" with national security.  Saddam Hussein was a danger with the weapons [because he had used them before on his own people]*, and he was a danger with the ability and intent to make the weapons [because he would have used them again if he could, plus he was hiding the ability from the world.]*  He was still in violation of the UN Resolutions, and Congress authorized the President, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan effort, to enforce those all-too-often-ignored Resolutions.  The President made the right decision, and we must, in our efforts, fully account for the still-missing stockpiles [if still in existence]* for the safety and security of all.  We should not be so ready to close the book on the extent of Iraq's network of denial and deception, and we should never be willing to leave the peace and security of an entire region up to the arbitrary dictates of one man.  The efforts to disarm Hussein's Iraq were justified, and they deserve our collective support, as do the brave men and women in uniform who are risking their lives for you.