"Neo Conned" <theM@trix.com> wrote in message
news:E7Gqc.51621$325.1160484@news20.bellglobal.com...
Finally, someone who's not afraid to downplay our mistakes and make the
Liberal's look like defeatists and Anti-Americans!
-neo
Sarin? What Sarin?
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Published: May 19, 2004
You probably missed the news because it didn't get much play, but a small,
crude weapon of mass destruction may have been used by Saddam's terrorists
in Iraq this week.
"may".
The apparent weapon was sarin gas, a highly toxic nerve agent that causes
victims to choke to death. Developed by the Nazis, it has been used in the
past by terrorists in Japan to kill a dozen subway riders and panic
thousands, and by Saddam Hussein, who produced tons of it to kill Iraqi
Kurds.
While the US and UK turned a blind eye..
Rigged as an "improvised explosive device," or roadside bomb, the
155-millimeter howitzer shell was accidentally detonated by a U.S.
ordnance
team. Two men were treated for what an Army spokesman called "minor
exposure" to the nerve gas.
You never saw such a rush to dismiss this as not news. U.N. weapons
inspectors whose reputations rest on denial of Saddam's W.M.D. pooh-poohed
the report. "It doesn't strike me as a big deal," said David Kay.
Indeed. Even the US army isn't regarding it as a big deal, they say it was
probably manufactured before 1991 too..
"Sarin Bomb Is Likely a Leftover From the 80's" was USA Today's Page 10
brushoff; maybe the terrorists didn't know their shell was loaded with
sarin. Besides, say our lionized apostles of defeat, a poison-gas bomb
does
not a "stockpile" make. Even the Defense Department, on the defensive,
strained not to appear alarmist, saying confirmation was needed for the
field tests.
See?
In this rush to misjudgment, we can see an example of the "Four Noes" that
have become the defeatists' platform.
"noes"?
The first "no" is no stockpiles of W.M.D., used to justify the war, were
found. With the qualifier "so far" left out, the absence of evidence is
taken to be evidence of absence.
Except Colin had pictures of truck trailers he swore blind were mobile
bioweapon labs.. alos. it is impossible to prove there a negative.
In weeks or years to come - when the
pendulum has swung, and it becomes newsworthy to show how cut-and-runners
in
2004 were mistaken - logic suggests we will see a rash of articles and
blockbuster books to that end.
These may well reveal the successful concealment of W.M.D., as well as
prewar shipments thereof to Syria and plans for production and missile
delivery, by Saddam's Special Republican Guard and fedayeen, as part of
his
planned guerrilla war - the grandmother of all battles. The present story
line of "Saddam was stupid, fooled by his generals" would then be replaced
by "Saddam was shrewder than we thought."
They may. On the other hand they may not. Current evidence suggests that
they may not.
This will be especially true for bacteriological weapons, which are small
and easier to hide. In a sovereign and free Iraq, when germ-warfare
scientists are fearful of being tried as prewar criminals, their impetus
will be to sing - and point to caches of anthrax and other mass killers.
Defeatism's second "no" is no connection was made between Saddam and Al
Qaeda or any of its terrorist affiliates. This is asserted as revealed
truth
with great fervor, despite an extensive listing of communications and
meetings between Iraqi officials and terrorists submitted to Congress
months
ago.
Keep FLOGGING that dead horse..
Most damning is the rise to terror's top rank of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who
escaped Afghanistan to receive medical treatment in Baghdad. He joined
Ansar
al-Islam, a Qaeda offshoot whose presence in Iraq to murder Kurds at
Saddam's behest was noted in this space in the weeks after 9/11. His
activity in Iraq was cited by President Bush six months before our
invasion.
Osama's disciple Zarqawi is now thought to be the televised beheader of a
captive American.
The third "no" is no human-rights high ground can be claimed by us
regarding
Saddam's torture chambers because we mistreated Iraqi prisoners. This
equates sleep deprivation with life deprivation, illegal individual
humiliation with official mass murder. We flagellate ourselves for
mistreatment by a few of our guards, who will be punished; he delightedly
oversaw the shoveling of 300,000 innocent Iraqis into unmarked graves.
Iraqis know the difference.
Several problems here:
1) You cannot justify your own bad behaviour by saying "well it wasn't as
bad as what x did"
2) The people being humilated by US troops are innocent until proven
guilty - i.e. we do not know if they carried out executions, tortures etc.
3) If you're going to assume the role of policeman, you'd best make damns
sure your own behaviour is above reproach.
The fourth "no" is no Arab nation is culturally ready for political
freedom
and our attempt to impose democracy in Iraq is arrogant Wilsonian
idealism.
You can't "impose" democracy. To use the phrase is very telling..
In coming years, this will be blasted by revisionist reportage as an
ignoble
ethnic-racist slur. Iraqis will gain the power, with our help, to put down
the terrorists and find their own brand of political equilibrium.
Will today's defeatists then admit they were wrong? That's a fifth "no."
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