Iraq WMD search ended

From SwissInfo.

Right now, the American media are trumpeting the "admission" that "Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction." Before the crowing gets too loud, let's consider what the Iraq Survey Group did find: "tons of documents" detailing Saddam Hussein's wishes and desires about building a WMD stockpile. (The Swiss spell it "tonnes," so you need to search on that spelling when you follow the link.) In short: the issue wasn't merely whether Saddam Hussein already had a stockpile, but also whether he would build it if he had the time, and was working on it.

And in fact, Saddam Hussein played just a bit too cute before the war. He diddled the inspectors repeatedly, and had several active programs. The best thing you can say about these programs is that none of them bore any fruit.

Under any other historical circumstances--by which I mean, if we had today the kind of press corps we had in World War Two--the media would not be carping at the President for starting a war without sufficient casus belli. Saddam's prior internal activities, and more importantly his financing of Palestinian homicide bombers, would have been sufficient casus belli to them. And today, with the finding that Saddam has no WMD to threaten anyone with and was essentially bluffing, Saddam Hussein would be the laughingstock of the civilized world and probably also the laughingstock of the Middle East. Behold the Big Bluffer! America called his bluff, and what did he have? Nothing! (And indeed the Middle East Media Research Institute has material suggesting that Saddam Hussein is a laughingstock to a growing number of reform-minded intellectuals and commentators.)

Unfortunately, we have two press corps. We have the Dan Rather/Peter Jennings/Katie Couric/DIane Sawyer/Murphy Brown press corps, and we have the Joseph Farah/Sean Hannity/Rush Limbaugh/John Hinderaker/Charles Johnson press corps. If you want a study in contrast between those interested in the truth and those interested only in getting their friends into power, this is that moment, and the story.