May 19, 2004

Fox News is all over a just-released story about how a mustard gas shell was discovered 2 weeks (!) ago in Iraq, and now a shell containing sarin gas, a nerve agent, has also been discovered. Both devices were allegedly IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices, like the conventional explosive bombs the resistance fighters in Iraq are using to kill our troops almost daily.

I find this story so incredible and so suspect as to be laughable.

First, let’s get back to reality for a moment: Do you have any idea what it would be worth to the Bush Administration to find an actual cache of those pesky WMDs in Iraq? If any ONE of Saddam’s captured henchmen in that “deck of cards” had personal knowledge of where those WMDs are hidden, they would have cut a sweet deal for immunity and a life of luxury – and the Bush Administration would have gladly paid it.

Well that hasn’t happened, and there is no way Saddam was out at night, digging holes all by himself. In order for Saddam to have hidden large stockpiles of those WMDs, he would have had to rely upon his chain of command to accomplish that, yet not a single one of his top officers has broken after all these months of interrogation. Go figure.

There is really no reason for any Iraqi to keep these WMD locations a secret anymore. Saddam and almost his entire former regime, is in custody awaiting almost certain execution. For anyone with that kind of knowledge, there is nothing to gain by remaining silent, and there is everything to gain by revealing where those WMDs are, yet not one of Saddam’s top people has cut such a lucrative deal. Heck, the logistics required to ship those WMDs out of Iraq to Syria would have been challenging to say the least, which is why I doubt that story as well.

The other thing that makes this story suspect is the use of poison gas projectiles in an improvised explosive device, when conventional explosives have been doing such an effective job of killing and maiming our troops to date. I mean, if something works, you don’t fix it, right? It’s possible those Iraqi bomb makers didn’t know they were rigging up a mustard gas and sarin IED. Maybe they just inadvertently picked up a mustard gas shell and a sarin nerve gas shell out of a stockpile of conventional explosives, and rigged them up into IEDs like all the others. I suppose that’s a possibility, but why did it take 14 months for such a “mistake” to be made?

There’s also the possibility both those shells were planted. Did I write that? Yep, I sure did. I’m not much of a conspiracy nut, but in this particular case, I see a very convenient “discovery”, particularly in view of the fact the Bush job approval numbers are shriveling, and the fact our troops’ image has been so tarnished by the Iraqi prison torture and sex-abuse scandal filling the headline news at present.

That little torture and rape faux pas is beginning to get legs in the form of direct approval by the Bush Administration, and specifically by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to extend cruel interrogation techniques used against terror suspects in Afghanistan to Iraqi detainees. If the New Yorker Magazine article making those claims proves valid, Bush might as well pack for Crawford, Texas right now to avoid the January rush.

If Bush loses his bid for re-election, it won't be because Kerry or Nader or some third party candidate beat him. Bush is his own worst enemy, and his problems are entirely self-inflicted.

Carl F. Worden

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