The Preception of Deception:� Where Are the Iraqi Weapons?

[pynchonoid]

U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd

June 5, 2003

The Preception of Deception:  Where Are the Iraqi
Weapons?

With each passing day, the questions surrounding
Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction take on
added urgency.  Where are the massive stockpiles of
VX, mustard, and other nerve agents that we were told
Iraq was hoarding? Where are the thousands of liters
of botulinim toxin? Wasn't it the looming threat to
America posed by these weapons that propelled the
United States into war with Iraq? Isn't this the
reason American military personnel were called upon to
risk their lives in combat?

On March 17, in his final speech to the American
people before ordering the invasion of Iraq, President
Bush took one last opportunity to bolster his case for
war. The centerpiece of his argument was the same
message he brought to the United Nations months
before, and the same message he hammered home at every
opportunity in the intervening months, namely that
Saddam Hussein had failed to destroy Iraq's weapons of
mass destruction and thus presented an imminent danger
to the American people.  "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," the President
said.

Now, nearly two months after the fall of Baghdad, the
United States has yet to find any physical evidence of
those lethal weapons. Could they be buried underground
or are they somehow camouflaged in plain sight? Were
they destroyed before the war? Have they been shipped
out of the country?  Do they actually exist?  The
questions are mounting. What started weeks ago as a
restless murmur throughout Iraq has intensified into a
worldwide cacophony of confusion.

The fundamental question that is nagging at many is
this:  How reliable were the claims of this President
and key members of his Administration that Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction posed a clear and imminent
threat to the United States, such a grave threat that
immediate war was the only recourse?

[...] What amazes me is that the President himself is
not clamoring for an investigation.  It is his
integrity that is on the line.  It is his truthfulness
that is being questioned.  It is his leadership that
has come under scrutiny. And yet he has raised no
question, expressed no curiosity about the strange
turn of events in Iraq, expressed no anger at the
possibility that he might have been misled.  How is it
that the President, who was so adamant about the
dangers of WMD, has expressed no concern over the
where-abouts of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

Indeed, instead of leading the charge to uncover the
discrepancy between what we were told before the war
and what we have found – or failed to find – since the
war, the White House is circling the wagons and
scoffing at the notion that anyone in the
Administration exaggerated the threat from Iraq.  

In an interview with Polish television last week,
President Bush noted that two trailers were found in
Iraq that U.S. intelligence officials believe are
mobile biological weapons production labs, although no
trace of chemical or biological material was found in
the trailers.  "We found the weapons of mass
destruction," the President was quoted as saying. 
Certainly he cannot be satisfied with such meager
evidence.

[...] Who are the American people to believe?  What
are we to think?  Even though I opposed the war
against Iraq because I believe that the doctrine of
preemption is a flawed and dangerous instrument of
foreign policy, I did believe that Saddam Hussein
possessed some chemical and biological weapons
capability.  But I did not believe that he presented
an imminent threat to the United States – as indeed he
did not.  

Such weapons may eventually turn up. But my greater
fear is that the belligerent stance of the United
States may have convinced Saddam Hussein to sell or
disperse his weapons to dark forces outside of Iraq. 
Shouldn't this Administration be equally alarmed if
they really believed that Saddam had such dangerous
capabilities?

Saddam Hussein is missing.  Osama bin Laden is
missing.  Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are
missing.  And the President's mild claims that we are
"on the look" do not comfort me.  There ought to be an
army of UN inspectors combing the countryside in Iraq
or searching for evidence of disbursement of these
weapons right now.  Why are we waiting?  Is there fear
of the unknown?  Or fear of the truth?

This nation and, indeed, the world were led into war
with Iraq on the grounds that Iraq, possessed weapons
of mass destruction, and posed an imminent threat to
the United States and to the global community.  As the
President said in his March 17 address to the nation,
"The danger is clear: using chemical, biological or,
one day, nuclear weapons, obtained with the help of
Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated 
ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands
of innocent people in our country, or any other."

That fear may still be valid, but I wonder how the war
with Iraq has really mitigated the threat from
terrorists.  As the recent attack in Saudi Arabia
proved, terrorism is alive and well and unaffected by
the situation in Iraq.

Meanwhile, the President seems oblivious to the
controversy swirling about the justification for the
invasion of Iraq. Our nation's credibility before the
world is at stake. While his Administration digs in to
defend the status quo, Members of Congress are
questioning the credibility of the intelligence and
the public case made by this Administration on which
the war with Iraq was based.  Members of the media are
openly challenging whether America's intelligence
agencies were simply wrong or were callously
manipulated.  Vice President Cheney's numerous visits
to the CIA are being portrayed by some intelligence
professionals as "pressure."  And the American people
are wondering, once again, what is going on in the
dark shadows of Washington.

It is time that we had some answers. It is time that
the Administration stepped up its acts to reassure the
American people that the horrific weapons that they
told us threatened the world's safety have not fallen
into terrorist hands.  It is time that the President
leveled with the American people.  It is time that we
got to the bottom of this matter. 

We have waged a costly war against Iraq.  We have
prevailed.  But, we are still losing American lives in
that nation.  And the troubled situation there is far
from settled.  American troops will likely be needed
there for years.  Billions of American tax dollars
will continue to be needed to rebuild.  I only hope
that we have not won the war only to lose the peace. 
Until we have determined the fate of Iraq's weapons of
mass destruction, or determined that they, in fact,
did not exist, we cannot rest, we cannot claim
victory.

Iraq's weapons of mass destruction remain a mystery
and a conundrum.  What are they, where are they, how
dangerous are they?  Or were they a manufactured
excuse by an Administration eager to seize a country? 
It is time to answer these questions.  It is time–
past time – for the Administration to level with the
American people, and it is time for the President to
demand an accounting from his own Administration as to
exactly how our nation was led down such a twisted
path to war. 


<http://www.senate.gov/~byrd/byrd_speeches/byrd_speeches_2003june/byrd_speeches_2003june_list/byrd_speeches_2003june_list_0.html>


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