Once upon a time a bored young shepherd boy decided to play a
trick on his little village. He cried, “Wolf! wolf!”
and the people of the town rushed to his side, ready to fight off
the danger. But there was no wolf to be found. A little upset at
the boy’s prank, the townspeople went back to their lives. A
few days later the town once again heard cries of
“Wolf!” and once more rushed to the boy’s side.
Again, no wolf. Furious at his deception, the people left, swearing
to never come back. A few days later that same boy was tending his
flock when he saw an enormous wolf. He shouted for help at the top
of his lungs, but to no avail. No one came. His lies had lost him
his credibility, which in turn cost him the support of his friends
when he needed them most.
Well, the same thing is happening, only on a much larger and
much more serious scale. The search to find weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq has been going on for months, both before and
after the war, but not a single weapon has been found.
The Bush administration justified this recent war to our allies
in the name of “disarming a tyrant,” by promising to
destroy the chemical and biological weapons Bush said Saddam
Hussein had. Now, accusations have arisen that the United States
did in fact “cry wolf” ““ that the United States
cited a non-existent danger in an effort to raise international and
domestic support for an unpopular war. If the United States proves
unable to find WMD, or at least strong evidence of a WMD program,
the United States could face a severe loss of credibility in the
international community, leading to fewer allies when they are
needed most.
It’s not that WMD haven’t been found because the
inspectors haven’t been looking hard enough. In fact,
thousands of qualified people have been combing the sandy deserts
of Iraq and peeping under every pebble in hopes of finding scud
missiles, anthrax powder or any number of banned weapons. The
number of U.S. inspectors has now reached 1,500, more than five
times the number that Hans Blix’s U.N. inspection team
had.
So, it’s not that there is a lack of effort put into the
search. Where are the weapons then?
For a moment, let’s give the Bush administration the
benefit of the doubt and assume that Hussein did have the 500 tons
of mustard gas and nerve gas; 25,000 liters of anthrax; 38,000
liters of botulinum toxin and the 29,984 prohibited munitions
capable of delivering chemical agents it said he had.
For starters, Iraq is a large country, and it could be that the
inspectors haven’t looked in the right places yet.
Furthermore, it’s well known that Hussein is a master of
deception and could have perfected ways of hiding these
weapons.
Or, perhaps (as President Bush himself suggested) Iraqi leaders
destroyed these weapons en masse shortly before the invasion
began.
All three of these possibilities are probable reasons as to why
U.S. inspectors have been coming up empty handed.
But what happens if it turns out Iraq did not in fact have
weapons of mass destruction ““ that the Bush administration
played upon people’s fears in an effort to jump-start the
war.
Then, the United States could face the biggest challenge to its
credibility that it’s ever seen. As David Albright, former
U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, said, “If no WMD are found,
then the fundamental justification for this war is not there, and
there’s going to have to be some real answers why we went to
war and how did the U.S. make such a huge mistake about the WMD
programs in Iraq.”
It’s well known that France, Germany and Russia were not
supportive of the United States’ desire for military action
in Iraq. The war already caused traditional alliances to buckle, if
not break entirely. Imagine the international consequences if it
turns out that there really are no WMD in Iraq and that the United
States was lying to the world.
The administration promised that Hussein’s Iraq was busy
brewing deadly chemical and biological weapons and staked the lives
of thousands of innocent U.S. and Iraqi citizens on this promise.
If credible evidence of WMD fails to arise, serious damage will
have been done to United States’ credibility.
Like the boy who cried wolf one too many times, the Bush
administration’s crying “WMD!” could seriously
stunt the backing our allies give us, thus severely hurting the
very real and ongoing war against terror. Let’s just hope the
inspectors find something ““ and soon.