6.06.2003

Sen. Byrd on WMD

Sen. Robert Byrd seems to be the only one in Congress with much to say about Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction. I recommend you read the whole speech, but here are a few excerpts:
What amazes me is that the President himself is not clamoring for an investigation.  It is his integrity that is on the line.  It is his truthfulness that is being questioned.  It is his leadership that has come under scrutiny. And yet he has raised no question, expressed no curiosity about the strange turn of events in Iraq, expressed no anger at the possibility that he might have been misled.  How is it that the President, who was so adamant about the dangers of WMD, has expressed no concern over the where-abouts of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

Indeed, instead of leading the charge to uncover the discrepancy between what we were told before the war and what we have found – or failed to find – since the war, the White House is circling the wagons and scoffing at the notion that anyone in the Administration exaggerated the threat from Iraq... 

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...Such weapons may eventually turn up. But my greater fear is that the belligerent stance of the United States may have convinced Saddam Hussein to sell or disperse his weapons to dark forces outside of Iraq.  Shouldn't this Administration be equally alarmed if they really believed that Saddam had such dangerous capabilities?

Saddam Hussein is missing.  Osama bin Laden is missing.  Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are missing.  And the President's mild claims that we are "on the look" do not comfort me.  There ought to be an army of UN inspectors combing the countryside in Iraq or searching for evidence of disbursement of these weapons right now.  Why are we waiting?  Is there fear of the unknown?  Or fear of the truth?

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