Vanity: Another Rope-a-Dope regarding WMD?

4/23/03 | amused

[amused]

I've been thinking about the situation with the search for WMD. Now after watching events of the past few years, it occured to me that Bush and his team seem to be excellent at the rope a dope. They let their critics' fall all over themselves at some feigned weakness only to later show strength and blow the critics credibility.

Several examples would include:

• Letting the press go overboard portraying him as stupid in Election 2000. By trying to convince the public Bush was a moron, his critics were exposed by the debates. Their cries had played right into Bush's hands as he showed that, while not the greatest public speaker or debater, he certainly could hold his own in the brain dept..

• Though Afganistan was no picnic it was hardly the horrible quagmire it was prophesized to become.

• Recently during the Iraq war, in the early stages, the press went nuts about the war's progress, Iraqi resistance and the failure of the war plan. The critics took it even further and grew smug about how right they were....only to look foolish when the regime collapsed quickly with relatively few civilian casaulties (at least compared to critics' estimates).

Now the search for WMD. Again we have a segment of press salivating that we haven't found anything. Some even returning to their assertions that Saddam didn't have them in the first place hence the whole war was unjustified. I have a sneaking suspicion that we are about to see the Left played for fools by a supposed anti-intellectual dimwit.

It really must drive the Left nuts to call Bush a moron all the time and then have him outsmart them.

[narby]

How much proof is needed?

If "WMD" includes the long range balistic missles Iraq was forbidden, then it's already been proven by what they shot at Kuwait and hit the ocean.

If it includes cruise missles, then the missle that hit the Kuwait shopping center also was beyond the allowable range.

If this were a court of law, and you showed they HAD WMD by evidence of previous use, and they were training their people how to handle WMD, and they had lots of atropene to treat WMD, and lots of chemical suits. Then a court should convict right there that they HAVE WMD, since there is no proof they got rid of it. That evidence should be enough for "proof" beyond a reasonable doubt.

And... Iraq was breaking the Gulf War I cease fire agreement almost daily by firing on our aircraft.

But, like typical leftists, I suspect the media will still consider that Geo. W. took us to war for no good reason.

[alnick]

The Euphrates river tested so "hot" that US troops had to truck water to some of the villages near the river for a few days.

And the media just dropped it.

[SuziQ]

Why would we be keeping it secret if we do?

They could be trying to determine the origin of the products.

[fractal38]

The Euphrates river is the source of water for roughly half of the population of Iraq. If Saddam dumped a major amount of toxic chemicals in the river, the villages immediately downstream would be littered with dead bodies. The chemicals found in the river were trace amounts, that appear to be runoff from a WMD factory or leakage from a buried WMD cache. The iraqi natives are drinking the stuff.

[Damagro]

Wait till the libs "no wmds" rant reaches a fever pitch and then release a mountain of evidence. It's what I've believed all along. You don't release evidence piecemeal during the investigation, you release it when the case is secure.Some of the Dems have caught on this time, but not the media

[El Gato]

You can't just pour this stuff down the drain without killing a lot of people.

Actually some stuff you can, without killing too many people anyway. Weren't there signifigent traces of mustard and sarin agents found in one of the major rivers, the Tigress I think?

[Grampa Dave]

Quiet now! The left wing mediots and the politicians might hear you.

We want them to go into a full screaming lunatic ballastic mode about no WMD's being found.

Then after the Da$$hole and the Pelo$i go on national tv to complain about no WMDS and the shrieking heads followup. With screaming opeds from from the screaming fairies controlling the NY/La Slimes and of course on ABCNNBCBS with Blather and Jennings screaming no WMDS.

Then, we will suddenly see and read about massive WMD finds all over Iraq, Syria and Iran. Many stories will be covered by the embedden reporters who swore not to talk about it until given the okay.

Be quiet now and don't warn them.

[ccmay]

no one will find it unless one of the guys who buried it shows us.

I would lay bets that all the men who actually participated in burying these weapons are now themselves dead and buried. That is the way things are done in societies like Saddam's Iraq.

-ccm

[lurky]

It may be "brilliant strategy" to release information later rather than sooner, to make your enemies looks like buffoons, but in this case, the longer the Bush administration waits to release any credible evidence of any kind of WMD, the longer the suspision will grow that any weapons found will have, in fact, been "planted."

Why not obliterate that conspiracy argument as soon as possible instead of giving it time to mature into a full-blossomed "safety net" argument for leftists?

If it is strategy, it's a bad one, methinks.

[amused]

More rope a dope.....

"The Bush administration may already have hard evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that it is not sharing with the public, said Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Thomas McInerney, a military commentator for Fox News," reports the Jerusalem Post