Where are the WMDs?

Last week David Meyers said, “After invading Iraq, everyone found enormous stockpiles of WMDs…” If true, that would be very good news for the White House, as they’ve been looking for any evidence to support their pre-war claims that Iraq had WMDs. If Mr. Meyers has any proof or can cite a credible source for this information, I’m sure the President, Congress and the American people would like to see it.

I assert that there is no such proof, and in fact, there has been overwhelming proof that there were no WMDs in Iraq at the time of the invasion and there were no WMD programs underway. The most the administration can now say is that Saddam had intentions to start WMD programs (which would not have been a sufficient threat to our national security to get Congressional approval to go to war).

The proof I cite that there were no WMDs includes:

President Bush: “The main reason we went into Iraq at the time was we thought he had weapons of mass destruction. It turns out he didn’t.” You can see this at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060821.html.

The Iraq Survey Group, headed by General Dayton, set up by the intelligence department within the Pentagon, whose final report says, “While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991. There are no credible indications that Baghdad resumed production of chemical munitions thereafter.” The report also mentions that there is no proof that WMDs were sent to Syria. You can Google the report.

Even General Colin Powell has admitted that his presentation to the UN to justify the war turned out to be totally false. He now says it was the biggest mistake of his career.

Then, of course, there are the reports of the UN weapons inspectors who told us before the war that Iraq had no WMDs.

I challenge Mr. Meyers to provide credible documentation that disputes the President, the ISG, the UN and General Powell’s admissions that Iraq did not have WMDs.

Jon Monday