David Rodeback's Blog

Friday, December 2, 2005

If These Aren't Weapons of Mass Destruction . . .

There's a new book out by investigative journalist Richard Miniter, entitled Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror. One of those myths is that we have found no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. You know how the media and the Democrats play that. Allegedly, President Bush told us that we had to go to war to avert the imminent threat that Saddam Hussein would use his WMD on us or our friends, or both. (False: He never said it was imminent; he said we had to act preemptively before the danger was imminent. See his 2003 State of the Union address.) So we went to war. (That part is true.) We found no WMDs. (That's false; see below.) Therefore the President lied. (Apparently, this is false.) Therefore, we should get out of Iraq.

When cornered, sometimes the Left will admit that the President said Saddam had weapons programs, particularly a nuclear weapons program, not necessarily the actual weapons yet. (We know he had actual chemical weapons in the past; he used them on his own people years ago.) Then they will hasten to say that we found no WMD programs, either. Therefore, ostensibly, their logic is intact.

If only we were as simple minded and gullible as the Big Media Acronyms or the radicalized Democratic Party leaders thing we are!

On  pages 97 through 106 of Disinformation Miniter lists some interesting finds. Here are some examples.

• On June 23, 2004, coalition forces found 1.77 tons of enriched uranium, of the type one uses to make atomic bombs.
• In the sector administered by Poland, Polish officials bought 17 chemical warheads on the black market, to keep them from being bought by terrorists. The warheads contained cyclosarin, a nerve agent.
• On August 8, 2005, we found 1500 gallons of chemical agents designed for use in chemical warfare.
• In May 2004 we found shells with chemical agents attached to two different roadside bombs, one with the nerve agent sarin and one with mustard gas.

Don't expect Miniter's book to change the tone or substance of the public debate. The Left long ago established that, for them, facts are very minor obstacles, to be swept away in pursuit of the overarching goal: regaining personal and group political power, no matter what the cost.

Two decades ago, when the Soviet Union still existed, I read a book with a very similar title: Dezinformatsia: Active Measures in Soviet Strategy. It was about ongoing Soviet efforts to sway reporting and perceptions generally in the West about the Soviet Union and its enemies, through the use of disinformation. The more things change, the more they stay the same -- except that now the Left doesn't need any coordination, assistance, or encouragement from a half-world empire that no longer exists. They can root for our enemies without any outside encouragement at all, now.

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