Weapons of Mass Distraction

Larry Elder writes: On Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Did the American President Lie? (Via Capitalism Magazine)

The near pathological contempt so many hold for President Bush clouds their ability to put themselves in the commander-in-chief's shoes. On Sept. 11, in America, over 3,000 people lost their lives. Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein continued to defy United Nations Security Council resolutions to come clean. He flouted the U.N.-sponsored Oil-for-Food program, diverting the money from its intended purpose.

Critics quite properly accuse the U.S. intelligence community for failing to connect the dots and thus prevent 9/11. After the first Gulf War in 1991, the advanced nature of Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program shocked intelligence analysts. Nuclear bomb testing in India and Pakistan came as a surprise, as did the advanced nature of Iran's and Libya's WMD programs. By all means, the U.S. intelligence failures call for serious soul-searching, and possibly housekeeping to improve accuracy.

But, in the case of pre-war Iraq, the president's critics suggest the following: Cross your fingers, hope for the best, and run the risk of another attack on American soil, this time possibly with chemical or biological weapons. No, the president acted upon the best available information and properly discharged his responsibility as commander-in-chief.

Meanwhile, this same commander-in-chief and other members of the U.S. government don't seem very concerned about the danger posed by the Iranian Islamofascist regime, from its funding of terrorists to its development of WMD. In fact, unlike Iraq, there's been a concerted effort even court diplomatic relations with this Axis of Evil member.

Michael Ledeen recently wrote about the danger of this policy of appeasement with Iran: The Seventh Level: Americans appeasing evil.

If the Specter/Ney/Biden efforts to "improve relations" [with the Iranian theocracy] were simply acts of folly by men who don't know better, one might laugh them off. But they have serious consequences, as our diplomats -- who actively encouraged the representatives' acts of appeasement -- must realize. The Iranian people overwhelmingly hate the regime, and look to Washington for encouragement and support to carry out a democratic revolution, and therefore the mullahs try to create opportunities to convince the people that the Bush administration in fact approves of the regime itself. Any warm statement from a famous American is a body blow to the democratic opposition, and a balm to the mullahs, just as every critical word from President Bush has encouraged the people, and weakened the tyrants.

Appeasers are sent deep into the Inferno, because their acts are truly wicked, shoring up our would-be killers and discouraging our would-be allies inside the country.

Also see:
Soundfury: Let's resolve the WMD debate once and for all (Via InstaPundit)
Winds of Change: Tenet Talks

UPDATE: Today, Winds of Change features Iran In Focus, a great collection of links compiled by 'Free Iran' News. Winds of Change also had this Iran entry from early this week: Iran: Pay Attention, which features a good post by Oxblog.

UPDATE: Via 'Free Iran' News: Telegraph reports: Iran 'has secret atomic bomb project'.

America has convincing new evidence that Iran is hiding an atomic bomb project despite Teheran's promise to open up all of its nuclear facilities to international inspectors, a senior US official has told The Telegraph.

He said the Teheran regime was secretly trying to build a second and more advanced uranium enrichment plant in parallel to the large facilities in the town of Natanz revealed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year.
 
"There is no doubt in our mind that the Iranians have a lot that the IAEA does not know about," said the official. "The Iranians have a military programme that the IAEA has never set eyes on."

Posted by Forkum at February 6, 2004 07:44 AM