Senator Rick Santorum’s desperate effort to reenergize his failing re-election campaign by touting the discovery of so-called Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Repeat after me, BULL FECAL MATTER!
Leave it to Faux, er, I mean, Fox News, to spin the malarkey:
“We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons,” Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said in a quickly called press conference late Wednesday afternoon.
Reading from a declassified portion of a report by the National Ground Intelligence Center, a Defense Department intelligence unit, Santorum said: “Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq’s pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist.”
Now for a reality check. Mustard gas and sarin gas are not Weapons of Mass Destruction. They are potential Mass Casualty Weapons, but they do not cause “mass destruction”. They can cause mass casualties but, fortunately, are not very reliable weapon systems. How do we know? We have the empirical evidence from the Iraq-Iran war. Most of the casualties in that 8 year war were caused by conventional weapons, not so-called “WMD”. To cause mass casualties, mustard or sarin must be delivered via massive artillery bombardment or through air platforms (i.e. airplanes). Then Mother Nature has to cooperate and ensure that the wind is blowing toward the enemy lines. And the soldiers have to stand still and breathe the gas. Of course, soldiers do not always cooperate. Instead of sitting around smelling the fumes, theyn turn and run and
escape the danger (which many did). Chemical weapons are effective systems for disrupting the attack of an invading army. Even the threat of a chemical attack can force troops to don bulky chemical suits, which, when coupled with stifling heat, can rapidly degrade an Army’s ability to fight. Chemical weapons are more of a nuisance, a potentially deadly nuisance, but they are not nuclear weapons. A nuke is a genuine mass destruction weapon.
Saddam relied on chemical weapons primarily to deter Iran. He was not Adolf Hitler with a big mustache. He did not set up extermination camps to routinely gas civilian populations. Despite repeated Administration efforts to portray the chemical attack on the Kurds at Halabja as a common event, reports from the U.S. intelligence community at the time showed that the Kurds were victims of an exchange of chemical weapons between Iran and Iraq (see New York Times on January 31, 2003 entitled “A War Crime or An Act of War?” by Stephen C. Pelletiere). Saddam certainly did not weep for the Kurds, but he was not out to exterminate the Kurds as Hitler tried to do with the Jews of Europe. And, when it comes to attacking Kurds the Iranians and Turks are not exactly known for their humanity.
Degraded weapons buried in the desert were not the bill of goods sold to the American people to justify invading Iraq. We were warned of imminent mushroom clouds and unmanned aerial vehicles spritzing amusement parks with deadly biological agents. Santorum’s pathetic attempt to misrepresent the truth about Iraq’s weapon systems in order to win political support must be rebuffed in the strongest possible terms.
……………………………………………………..
Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder
of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm
that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by
terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson, who worked previously
with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s
Office of Counter Terrorism (as a Deputy Director), is a recognized
expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk
management. Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety
of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio,
ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News,
and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for
publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York
Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and
aviation security around the world. Further bio
details.
Personal Blog: No Quarter
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BoomanTribune Posts
“Adolf Hitler with a big mustache.”
That’s an amusing line, right there.
Pretty sad if we have spent 300 billion dollars and got 50,000 plus people killed over 500 unusable artillery shells. Then again thats the best case scenario. Nice try Santorum maybe you should add the two helium gas trailers to your list of dangerous WMD. Don’t forget the model plane sized unmanned drone they found.
Add those scary weapons to the list Santorum then tell me it was fucking worth the lives and money.
The truth of the matter, of course, was not the point. They needed something the media would uncritically repeat as justifying the fears of WMD. So now they “win” because people who wanted desperately to believe this wasn’t all a horrible mistake now have something to hold onto. And that’s the real tragedy.
People need to be taught how to think critically, I guess. I’ve never understood why it seems to come naturally for some, and not others. Maybe there’s a critical thinking gene??
He probably has things under the sink in his kitchen that are more dangerous than what’s in these shells, according to former US WMD search David Kay.
It strikes me on a consistent basis that it’s a good thing that I’m honest, integritous (or whatever word you would use), a nice guy and have a conscience, because I’m certain that I could probably get a lot of people to buy into any sort of cockamamie scheme I could cook up for separating the credulous from their money. Fox News has already done a great deal of the heavy lifting in this regard for me.
LOL re things under the sink. True!
to dish out such tripe. I don’t understand why the media (besides Olbermann) doesn’t fire back. This would be a great opportunity for some Democratic Leaders to get on the airwaves and call this “nonsense” out and to demand that the Bush administration come up with a specific exit plan for Iraq. If they don’t want a timeline, fine, then lay out a CLEAR mission which is reasonable and can be measured. If Bush, yet again, defers the withdrawal back to the Pentagon, then ask him “Who is leading the country? You or Rumsfeld (of course that would mean Cheney). “
Olbermann hammered Ricky last night.
I just love Olbermann. I just don’t like the sports segment but I watch the first half hour everynight now.
We now have the answer to Cindy Sheehan’s question for Bush. The noble cause Casey died for were 500 shells of out of date, stale, degraded chemical munitions.
Thank you Mr. President.
ouch.