Friday, June 06, 2003
I missed this tidbit, from June 1st, Bush Remarks Confirm Shift in Justifying War (washingtonpost.com). Wherein the Post reports that,
The president asserted that the discovery in Iraq of two trailers, with laboratory equipment but no pathogens aboard, was tantamount to a discovery of weapons.
"We found the weapons of mass destruction," Bush asserted in the Thursday interview, released Friday. "We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them."
Tom Tomorrow points to an Associated Press article of March 17, 2003 that says, "Iraq also handed over videotapes of mobile biological weapons laboratories to inspectors. Iraq says the videos show that the laboratories do not violate UN resolutions." as a rebuttal.
While one must be skeptical of Iraq's claim that their laboratories are not in violation of U.N. resolutions, one must also be skeptical of the president's logic that discovery of said laboratories in the absence of any accompanying biological materials is equates to discovering banned weapons. At best it proves that they had intentions of producing biological weapons but intention itself doesn't support the argument that Iraq was a clear and present danger.
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