Posted on 06/27/2003 9:21:28 AM PDT by DocFarmer
"Sub Rosa Vepres"
Posted by Doc Farmer
Saturday, June 28, 2003
We’re all familiar with the Latin phrase ''Sub Rosa'' (under the rose) which stands for something secret or hidden. Well, now I believe we should add a new phrase to the lexicon: ''Sub Rosa Vepres,'' or under the rose bush. Thanks to our friendly neighbourhood Iraqi Nuclear Weapons Developers, that is.
Yes, you’ve read by now that one of these scientists under Saddam Hussein’s employ (see also: death threat) was ordered to hide critical atomic weapons development equipment in his back yard, under (of all things) a rose bush. An interesting hiding place, don’t you think? The tools needed to create the greatest destructive force on the planet, nestled under one of the most gentle and beautiful images of love and romance.
And the lib/dem/soc/commies are still complaining that Dubya hasn’t found all of Saddam’s WMDs yet.
Other folks have made comments on the need for patience in finding Saddam’s weapons, but not me. I don’t think it’s relevant. Saddam had them. Saddam was developing them. End of story. The fact that U.S./Coalition forces have yet to find all of the materials doesn’t reduce the rightness of the conflict. Why? Because, no matter how much the lib/dem/soc/commies wish to lie about it, the fact is that the war was NEVER solely about WMDs.
Never.
WMDs were one and only one in a series of reasons for getting rid of Saddam. There was also winning the freedom of the Iraqi people, the ending of a murderous regime of a brutal dictator, ending the Ba’ath Party’s overt and covert support of terrorists and terrorism, etc. Dubya mentioned this over and over again. So did Colin, Condi, Dickie, Donnie, Manny, Moe, and Jack, for that matter. We already knew that Saddam had the weapons. Why? Because he admitted it. Because the Keystone Kops masquerading as U.N. Weapons Inspectors actually blundered onto some of them before the war began.
And here’s the one the lib/dem/soc/commies want you to forget. The fact that Clinton knew about them. As did Congress. Right around 1998. Right around the time of the impeachment vote. Right around the time Slick Willie got caught with his britches down--again!
Doesn’t anybody else find it odd that these same people who were supporting Slick’s barrage of 450 Cruise missiles (most of which missed, by the way) on the grounds of Saddam’s WMD production capability, now seem to have the most selective amnesia you could hope to find? Heck, that’s almost as bad as Hellary’s constant refrain of ''I Don’t Recall'' during sworn testimony, followed by an almost miraculous regeneration of her Temporal Lobes when she ''wrote'' her book.
I suppose that it is possible, though. Between the embarrassment of zipper-gate and the true horror that was 9/11, perhaps magical elves from the DNC clicked the heels of their ruby shoes three times and said, ''There’s no place like Syria...there’s no place like Syria,'' and followed the yellow-brick road to Damascus while giving U.N. Weapons Inspectors a road map of Albania and the Mainstream News Media a white cane and a cross-eyed guide dog with agoraphobia and a stammer.
Don’t believe me? Take some time to actually read the U.N. inspection reports. The ones that are actually available. Check out some of the intelligence reports available on the web. You know, the ones that have been declassified. If those are even the slightest hint of what was going on in Iraq, the reality must be far far worse.
But still, the lib/dem/soc/commies cling to their fevered wish that Dubya was wrong. They want, so very desperately, to believe the lies they keep telling everybody. Including themselves. It must be hard for them to deal with reality. Well, I suppose that goes without saying, actually...
And yet, in dribs and drabs, the weapons, the connection to terrorism, the training camps of Al Qaeda, the mass graves, slowly are uncovered. The world watches, the media ignores, the left lies, and life generally gets back to normal. With one significant difference.
The people of Iraq are free.
Odd, you never heard the news media say that, do you? I wonder why that is.
Before I leave you today, I’d like you to think about this. According to the CIA Fact Book 2002, the total area of Iraq is 437,072 square kilometres (almost twice the size of Idaho, and the spuds from Baghdad aren’t nearly as good). That’s probably hard to imagine, so think of it this way. A single rose bush would take up, at the very most, one square metre. There are one million square metres in a square kilometre. Now, think about digging up more than 437 billion rose bushes.
A needle in a haystack would be easy by comparison.
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Doc Farmer is an American who currently resides in Doha, Qatar.
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This article was originally posted on ChronWatch at: http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=3253 www.chronwatch.com
(Excerpt) Read more at chronwatch.com ...
...the origin of "sub rosa"...are at least partly shrouded in obscurity and confusion. According to one of my reference books ("From Achilles' Heel to Zeus's Shield," by Dale Corey Dibbley), the whole story was pretty much invented by the Romans. According to the myth, one fine afternoon a child god named Harpocrates stumbled upon the goddess Venus while she was engaged in one of her many illicit rendezvous. Venus's son Cupid, who happened to be in the neighborhood as well, quick-wittedly saved his mother's reputation by offering Harpocrates a beautiful rose in return for his vow of silence. Harpocrates kept his mouth shut, and the rose thereafter became the symbol of silence.For a minor Roman myth, this one had legs, as they say in show biz. It was still common in Medieval times to see a rose suspended over a dining table in France and England to remind guests that conversations at the table were not to be repeated elsewhere. Eventually real roses were replaced by plaster ones, and roses were still commonly found in the plaster work in many Victorian dining rooms. Today, "sub rosa" (and, less often, "under the rose") is a synonym for "secret," with the added connotation of "illicit."
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