Blair and His Enemies
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Blair's enemies are trying to get him on the issue of the lack of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) found in Iraq. Howard's enemies would like to do the same. But there are two glaring fallacies in most of the criticisms.
One is the head count argument. Several times now, I have read protests about the several hundred Iraqis who died in the invasion. But there is no mention of the vastly greater number of deaths that have already been averted - the steady flow of murders by Saddam's henchmen. The head count actually justifies the war.
The other is the hindsight argument. We can't find the WMDs, therefore the war was unjustified. Is this fair? I believe even the critics would have believed Saddam had WMDs if they'd be bothered to weigh the evidence. He'd had them, used them, and chased away the inspectors. What more would a reasonable person ask for?
As to why Saddam acted as if he had WMDs if he in fact didn't, given that everybody knew he'd had them, that is the mystery.
Any war is a gamble. Even with best intentions, an outcome can be terrible. In this case, with relatively little mayhem, the Middle East is becoming a better place. We should be grateful.
Philip O'Carroll