Iraqi Chemical Stash Uncovered
Post-Invasion Cache Could Have Been For Use in Weapons

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, August 14, 2005; Page A18

The headline basically says it all. The war to eliminate WMD in Iraq which might be used by terrorists has, as one of it's many costs, the existence of WMD in Iraq which might be used by terrorists. Not there before. There now. 1,500 gallons less than nothing accomplished at the cost of tens of thousands of lives.

This reminds me of the main reason I opposed the invasion. I generally oppose war. I especially oppose wars of choice (also called aggression). Saddam Hussein's tyranny was aweful. I feared that post Saddam Hussein Iraq might slip into civil war. All leaving me very confused. The deciding factor for me was the belief that there was poison gas and weaponised anthrax in Iraq. I thought that Saddam Hussen could be deterred from using weapons or giving them to terrorists, since he would have to know that the US would invade if there were any WMD terrorism involving WMD which did not demonstrably come from somewhere other than Iraq (like the Anthrax mailed to Daschle). However, post invasion, some of the WMD which I thought were in Iraq would end up in the hands of terrorists who could not be deterred.

Now it turns out that I was right even though I was wrong about the little detail of whether there were WMD in Iraq.

This, by the way, is the discovery which caused Captain Ed to notice the fundamental distinction between "the chemicals" and "the chemicals themselves" (see post below).