Never Forget About the Weapons of Mass Deception

by Bill Barnwell
by Bill Barnwell

The American people were duped. That’s the bottom line when it comes to this war with Iraq. We were told that Iraq posed a physical, imminent danger to the United States. If we did not intervene, we were told that Saddam may very well have launched a chemical, biological, or even nuclear attack against the United States. Failure to remove Saddam and his weapons of mass destruction meant a failure to protect the security of the United States. It was this issue that gave the President the support in the polls and Congress to go to war in Iraq. Bush & Co. seized on this fear, marched into Baghdad, toppled that giant statue of Saddam, placed the country under U.S control and occupation, began grooming our own Iraqi puppet government, and best of all, nabbed the evil Hussein himself. Let us all join our hearts together and sing of the joyous praises of this righteous intervention! Before I too begin singing the wonders of this war, let me take a moment to again point out the inconvenient fact that the American people were deceived into supporting this war and the administration has yet to answer for its deception.

What ever happened to all those Iraqi weapons? What about that imminent physical threat? What about all those apocalyptic statements by Bush and Cheney about Saddam’s ambitions to put together an arsenal of chemical, biological and nuclear agents? What about those Iraqi drones which would have allowed Saddam to launch an assault on our own homeland? What about all those connections between Iraq and al-Qaeda? We could go on and on. Gee, if these weapons were so abundant, why haven’t we found them eight months after the fall of Baghdad? Many others have raised these questions and each time they are airily dismissed by Bush and his war supporters.

"So what?" is now the mantra of Bush and the War Party. The weapons are no longer the issue. We got Saddam and the Iraqi people have been "liberated." Sure, there are some problems with terrorist strikes by insurgents, but those will be cleared up over time. In the end result we will have removed an evil man from power and the Iraqi people will be able to live happily ever after. Most importantly, the world will see that we are serious about dealing with hostile regimes. If you still don’t support this war, then you clearly think the world is better off with Saddam still in power. Case closed.

Not so fast, boys.

The weapons are still an issue. This point has been made many times before, and continually bears repeating until it is honestly addressed by the administration and the war hawks who support it: Either the American people were flat out lied to by the administration regarding the potential physical threat of Iraq, or administration officials conducted a war largely based on false and fabricated intelligence. Either way, heads should roll. This brazen deception should not go unaccounted for, and we should not go on our merry little way pretending this did not happen just because we captured Hussein.

Even if one supported the war on humanitarian or other grounds, it cannot be denied that the central premise for waging a full-fledged war on Iraq was its weapons capabilities. The longer time goes on, the clearer it becomes that the American people were deceived. They were deceived by the United States’ own weapons, weapons which I have labeled "Weapons of Mass Deception." They were launched against the American people, courtesy of their own lying government and media. They bought the lie hook, line and sinker. Opponents of this war should never silence themselves about the Weapons of Mass Deception until the administration and their smug little apologists at the think-tanks and right-wing magazines and foundations either admit error or take responsibility for their actions.

Bush & Co. were determined to get their war. Anyone who closely observed administration rhetoric after 9/11 will have noticed the question was not if we were going to strike Iraq, it was when we were going to strike Iraq. The debate had already been settled. Even after Iraq tried cooperating and weapons inspectors were coming up with nothing, the administration only increased its belligerence and further accused the Iraqi government of not cooperating (Not cooperating according to the War Hawks consisted of the Iraqi government trying to maintain some semblance of dignity during the inspection process. As a result, they were accused of not giving weapons inspectors "unfettered access." They were also accused of giving inspectors a "fabricated" declaration of their weapons capabilities. To this day, the War Party has failed to show how this declaration was untruthful).

When weapons inspectors reported they were finding nothing, the War Party remained defiant. Excuses were made that the Iraqi’s were just hiding the weapons. We were also told that since Iraq is a big country that the weapons must have just been hidden somewhere and they were going to take awhile to find. Or maybe the Iraqi’s were just moving the weapons from place to place. Soon after, Hans Blix and his inspection team were accused of not doing their job or of being sympathetic to the Iraqi’s.

As expected, the U.N weapons inspectors then became targets of the War Party. They could no longer be trusted. No matter, it was never about inspections anyway. The inspection process was just a ploy to give credibility to the buildup for the invasion and convince the world that Bush wasn’t trigger happy. The spin then became that since even the weapons inspectors couldn’t find the weapons, they must have been hidden somewhere, therefore we must invade! And invade we did.

Throughout that process, the excuses for war began piling on. Soon it was no longer just about weapons. Now it was about a war of liberation. We needed to do this for the Iraqi people. Then the Saddam = Hitler arguments were resurrected. Human rights, mass graves, political oppression, etc, etc, these were also reasons for going to war. Yet time and time again, polls showed that while the American people despised Hussein, they were supporting the war because of Iraq’s perceived weapons threat against the United States and their fictitious involvement in 9/11. All of which, by the way, has turned out to be bunk.

Today there is little talk from the administration about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Suddenly, the Sean Hannitys of the world have forgotten about their main reason for going to war. They have become hypocrites of the worst kind. They all loudly condemned Clinton for launching a war against Serbia for humanitarian reasons in ’99, but suddenly the war against Iraq is justified for humanitarian reasons. (Let’s not get into the illogical concept of dropping bombs on innocent people to supposedly stop the suffering of innocent people.) At least Clinton and Albright didn’t make up lies about Milosevic’s weapons capabilities and scare the American people into war. (Even in that war, the American people were willing to support it only if the risk to American lives was at an absolute minimum.) Bush and his ilk didn’t even have the dignity to be forthright with the American people and had to lie to get their way instead.

If these accusations against the administration are unfair, then they should explain to the American people why they themselves were misled, or made an honest mistake about Iraq’s weapons capabilities. But they won’t do that. Instead they and their fanatical supporters will try and ignore the issue and pretend that it doesn’t exist. It is up to all honest and reasonable people to make sure the War Party answers for their actions and misleading statements to the American public

All of the American people, whether they supported this invasion or not, should demand to know the truth. Even if you don’t care about the weapons issue, and supported this war on other grounds, you cannot deny that it was the prime issue that the administration used to push for war. It was also the issue which convinced most people who wound up supporting the war that an invasion was necessary. Bush, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Joe Lieberman, Andrew Sullivan, National Review, and others in the War Party coalition would like us all to conveniently forget about the alleged existence of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and the imminent threat they posed to the U.S. But we cannot let them forget. I challenge them and everyone else who euphorically supported the war to justify the administration’s assault on the American people with their Weapons of Mass Deception.

We cannot let them forget. We cannot stop writing about this issue. It bears repeating over and over again that we were lied to and deceived. As I said in the beginning of this essay, the American people were duped. They deserve better than that. I call on all intellectually honest people, whether they supported this war or not, to write their newspapers, call their congressmen, etc., and demand answers.

And here’s a message to you neoconservatives who wish we would just shut up about this: We are not going to shut up and we will not let allow this to become a non-issue. Eventually, the truth is going to have to come out and you are going to have to take responsibility for your role in spreading disinformation and fear.

Friends of liberty and opponents of dishonesty, spread the word. We demand answers about our government’s use of Weapons of Mass Deception. We will not shut up until we get answers. Don’t give up this fight. Continue to hound the War Party with these issues. Use all means of information necessary to hold our leaders accountable. Never forget, never let up. The truth will come out eventually.

Oh yeah, one more time boys, where are all those weapons again?

December 23, 2003

Bill Barnwell [send him mail] is a pastor in Swartz Creek, Michigan and a Master’s of ministry student at Bethel College.

Copyright © 2003 LewRockwell.com

Bill Barnwell Archives