One shell with some sarin gas might remind us all that maybe there is more out there but it doesn't, in my mind, justify the WMD argument to go to war. Now, maybe Bush should have used a different argument. War would have been as justifiable on the argument of Saddam's continual defiance. It would have even been as justifiable to say "We're going to rid the world of an evil dictator". I'm not saying it would be justifiable to everyone - just that it would be as justifiable. But Bush hung it all on the WMD argument. This set up the possibility of failure. To me, it seems this was the case because Bush, Cheney, and Tenet especially were so certain that Saddam had WMD they were willing to bet it all on that fact. If you believe Bob Woodward's new book, Saddam's past behaviors entered largely into that equation. Saddam has the final laugh - maybe.
|