The Iraq weapons naysayers

Some Democrats think they have found an issue they can ride to election victory in 2004.

“Where are the weapons of mass destruction?” they ask. “President Bush led us to war on false pretenses. He lied to the nation and told us there was an imminent threat posed to the security of the United States by Saddam Hussein’s unconventional arms. Where are they?”

At least one character in the party has begun calling for Bush’s impeachment because weapons have not yet been found.

Let me reassure you, Iraqi weapons of mass destruction will be found. Conclusive evidence of a program to build nuclear, biological and chemical weapons will be produced.

Having said that, I need to point out that I supported the war in Iraq and urged President Bush to wage it for other important strategic and security reasons – reasons besides weapons of mass destruction and violation of United Nations sanctions.

Iraq supported al-Qaida terrorism for more than a decade preceding Sept. 11, 2001. That fact has been well-documented by experts like Yossef Bodansky in his book, “Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America.”

That was reason enough to attack Iraq. If President Bush is guilty of anything, it is in not making the terror case against Iraq earlier and more strongly.

With the successful invasion of Iraq, we eliminated one of the world’s major terror-sponsoring regimes. Need I reiterate that we also liberated 26 million people from a brutal tyranny that shredded human beings alive, systematically raped and tortured and killed its own people in numbers greater than any external enemy could.

We ought to be collectively celebrating those achievements. Instead, there are some Americans, for political reasons, who would prefer to run down our victory and what it means to the security of the world and the freedom of the Iraqi people.

Nevertheless, have confidence that these people will be proven wrong. We will find the weapons of mass destruction. Significant evidence of weapons programs has already been discovered. More will come. Let not your heart be troubled.

What these naysayers refuse to understand is this: Iraq is a nation the size of California. Some of these weapons of mass destruction are concealable in a suitcase. Can you imagine finding a suitcase in the state of California? Indeed this process may be like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.

There’s one other important factor that needs to be considered: Some of these weapons have probably left the country.

I think we’re all certain Saddam Hussein was actually in Iraq before the invasion. Yet, he has not been found. He is believed to have left the country. Some reports suggest he and his entourage filled up moving vans with U.S. dollars at the Iraqi national bank before they left. If they had that capability, certainly they had the means and motive to remove weapons that cost mega-millions to produce.

But don’t expect the naysayers to be persuaded. Don’t expect them to be patient. Don’t expect them to give America and its president the benefit of the doubt. These people have a political agenda and that’s all that matters to them. They don’t even mind doing Saddam Hussein’s propaganda work if it helps elect Democrats in the next election cycle.

However, I don’t believe this strategy will work. If this is all the Democrats have in their political bag of dirty tricks, they are going to face disaster on election day. The American people believe President Bush. They don’t believe he is a liar. And when Democrats make such suggestions, they help seal their own political fate.