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Knowledge v. Belief
OK, let's look at what different people knew, believed, suspected, and wanted proof on prior to invading Iraq:
We all know Iraq used chemical weapons, that is, WMD, in the war with Iran.
We also all know that Iraq used such weapons in putting down their own people during the early 90s.
We know Iraq invaded Kuwait.
We know that Iraq violated the no-fly zones.
We know Iraq agreed to dismantle weapons and to UN inspections, that these inspections had ceased.
Do the above points of knowledge suggest some basis for sanctions? Wasn't a major goal of sanctions to get the inspection program back in place, and make sure there were no remaining WMD?
Now, on to belief. Many people believed WMD to continue to exist, but certainly not all did. Certainly very few Western governmnets would trust Hussein to not restart his WMD program, particularly his chemical weapons program, in the absence of inspections.
But no one knew whether he had them or not. That was kind of the point of inspections. And most of the world wanted those inspections to continue, so we would be acting on something other than a suspicion. Bush was asked repeatedly to make his case, and to show the evidence for the world to go to war. He failed to put forward enough evidence to convince anyone, and he refused to let the inspectors have enough time to do their job.
And, Hank, I'm glad you have such insight into the motivations of a.Q. Please share more wisdom with us on what motivates them and why they do what they do.
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