After the Santorum/Hoekstra announcement that we have found over 500 chemical weapons munitions in Iraq, the MSM has been beside itself. It has twisted its collective panties into the biggest wedgie on Earth trying to explain how Sarin and Mustard Gas from before a certain date isn’t really bad, and not even really a WMD at all.
Officials: U.S. didn’t find WMDs, despite claims
WASHINGTON – Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday they have no evidence that Iraq produced chemical weapons after the 1991 Gulf War, despite recent reports from media outlets and Republican lawmakers.
Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan on Wednesday pointed to a newly declassified report that says coalition forces have found 500 munitions in Iraq that contained degraded sarin or mustard nerve agents…
Pentagon officials [Uh, who exactly?] told NBC News that the munitions are the same kind of ordnance the U.S. military has been gathering in Iraq for the past several years, and “not the WMD we were looking for when we went in this time.”
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity [Oh, I see, Mr. Anonymous again] because of the sensitive nature of the issue.
“We were able to determine that [the missile] is, in fact, degraded and … is consistent with what we would expect from finding a munition that was dated back to pre-Gulf War,” an intelligence official told NBC. “However, even in the degraded state, our assessment is that they could pose an up-to-lethal hazard if used in attacks against coalition forces.”
So let me see if I understand this correctly–Sarin and Mustard Gas only count as WMD if they were made post-1991? They’re still lethal gases, still kill, and can kill thousands, but they don’t count because…? So in one breath the MSNBC Pentagon “official” (perhaps the janitor?) says these aren’t the WMD we were looking for but then in the next breath says they’re lethal. Last time I checked, that’s exactly what we were looking for–WMD that could kill hundred and thousands of people in one shot. I thought we were also looking for weapons the circus clowns at the UN IAEA said didn’t exist anymore, and that Saddam said he completely destroyed–which these 500+ weapons prove did exist and about which Saddam lied.
Hey, what do you think the odds are the Left will change it’s slogan to Saddam Lied! People Died! Nah…
I wonder what would happen to the collective MSM and their dismissal of this Sarin and Mustard Gas WMD if these very same old, useless and silly canisters were in their offices. Perhaps we could then do a poll and see who feels comfortable having this stuff around, just sitting there. Next to them at their desks. Sitting. Yeah. I have a tiny feeling these very same people who sniff at this report would indeed feel rather unsafe and at risk. Perhaps even in danger.
My friend Roger L. Simon is musing about comments made by Rep Jane Harman (D-CA) about said Sarin gas and whether or not the “old” type is dangerous. He has a suggestion involving her kitchen sink.
And don’t miss Gateway Pundit‘s excellent commentary and roundup of the coverage.
Well, at least we have another example of how the MSM are exactly following the George Soros/Deafeaticrat Talking Points.
Related Link:
Santorum Site on Issue with Documents
Of course the MSM’s will side with Saddam, being such a fine upstanding human being.
http://blogresponder.blogspot.com/2006/06/wmds-in-iraq-were-old-so-what.html
The Liberals will never concede that there were WMD in Iraq. After each discovery they will keep moving the ‘goal posts’ of what the discovery means, in this case the weapons are too old, prewar.
If absolute proof is ever found of WMDs the Liberal talking point will be that the weapons were so well hidden that there was no way the government could know about them prior to invading Iraq, therefore Bush lied us into war still applies.
The downplaying of finding these weapons comes as no surprise. The lefties in the MSM and the Bush haters are pulling out their hair and doing flips of rage on their lawns trying to explain this one away. Good ol Teddy Kennedy ( after a few rum and cokes ) will accuse the Bush Administration of planting them there. Howie Dean will scream his yowell saying Saddam would have never used them , he’s to gentle a dictator besides Bush is the real terrorist. And so on from these nuts. I do like the idea of placing them in the offices of those who feel these are harmless weapons of mass destruction. Let’s open one up in Nancy Pelosi’s house and see if it “works”.
Ahhh…the old Jedi mind trick…”These aren’t the WMD you were looking for…”
And hey, and the illegals get the whole “You don’t need to see his identification..”
Maybe Murtha is a wookie and we had better just let him win before he tears our arms off.
The MSM’s reaction to the discovery of WMDs in Iraq resembles the one we read about in “The Emperor’s New Clothes”: Only the most highly intelligent people (such as themselves) can fail to see WMDs. If you say that WMDs are WMDs, you are obviously a stupid person.
Hopefully, the MSM and Democrats will try to use this line of reasoning in upcoming elections.
Right after we went into Iraq, the lefties/Dems/MSM could have taken the nuanced position they are taking now; the WMD are really old, they were only poison gas, not nukes,… But they didn’t. Instead, they shrieked soundbites, like “No WMD in Iraq” and “Bush lied, people died”. They took an extremist position, and now they are stuck with it. Even one WMD puts the lie to the “No WMD” statement. It’s too late to be nuanced now. The soundbite sword cuts both ways.
With the MSM’s disclosure of how we are secretly trying to protect American citizens from terrorists (most recently financial record searches etc.), their insistence that the war was unjustified (no WMDs among other things), their highlighting focus on “atrocities” committed by U.S. Marines (including producing false photos of said atrocities), their immediate use of grieving family members of killed U.S. soldiers who blame Bush for their deaths, etc. etc. Need I go on?
It’s almost as if the MSM has an agenda. It’s almost like THEY want to control the government. And we did elect them… didn’t we?
Want to do something about this? Start naming names! Find out who the reporters are and who their editors are. Find out those who approve their stories for publication. Find out THEIR political affiliations. Then post it to your web sites. As long as we simply refer to them as the “MSM”, we give them a cloak of anonymity that encourages them. Makes them feel safe. We CAN make an impact here! Expose them specifically and you will get results.
There’s another angle to this story that no one on the right is touching yet and should be to put a double-whammy on the faux left.
Remember that one of the big arguments against going to war in Iraq was that the UN destroyed all of Saddam’s WMDs, which meant he didn’t have them. The unclassified documents in question show conclusively that the UN DIDN’T destroy all of Saddam’s WMD stockpiles. This means two things: 1) The UN weapons inspectors didn’t do their jobs, either out of incompetence or corruption, and 2) The Bush Bashers were wrong yet again about the Iraq war.
Why Republicans and conservatives aren’t pounding on pots and pans and making this simple observation is beyond me.