Overlooking the Obvious

Articles

Scott R. Lucado

Overlooking the Obvious
Aug 17, 2003

I realize that a lot of people are concerned/disappointed/outraged/whatever that after a few weeks of occupying Iraq, no large amounts of WMD have been discovered.

Those who oppose the war use this as evidence that the entire war was manufactured as an excuse to invade a country (and presumably, take its oil).

I admit that I am a little surprised that no WMDs have been found, but am confident that overall, there's too much smoke for there not to be a fire someplace.

What the war opponents consistently overlook is that there is in fact clear evidence that the Bush administration expects to find the weapons, and always has.

The evidence is of the dog-that-did-not-bark type, though, and that may be why no one has commented on it.

Let me give you an example. Last year, I was jury foreman on an aggravated assault case. There wasn't much evidence--it was basically a "he said/she said" case.

Several of the jurors were unwilling to vote for conviction--after all, we were talking about a prison sentence of many years for a conviction, based on skimpy evidence and not much testimony.

But I pointed out to my fellow jurors that one event that came out in undisputed testimony closed the issue for me. The victim, weeks after the assault, saw her attacker--and as soon as the attacker saw her, he instantly ran off.

If he was innocent, why run? How could he even recognize the victim, if they'd had no prior meeting?

After some deliberation, the jury voted for conviction. The three-time felon (with another felony rape charge pending) was sentenced to 50 years.

What has this got to do with Iraq? Just this-- that people who are acting in bad faith, act in bad faith.

If Bush et al were creating an excuse to invade Iraq, it seems to me that they'd simply plant some evidence. They certainly had plenty of opportunity, with Special Operations forces operating throughout the country on a regular basis. How hard would it have been for them to drop some ingredients around, for, say, the 3rd ID to find later?

Plenty easy, almost too easy, really. But it wasn't done--because to my mind at least, they had, and continue to have, every expectation that the WMDs will be found.

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Email Scott R. Lucado: scottrlucado@aol.com

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