In a report from the UN intended to vindicate the work of its inspection teams, the UN concludes that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction after 1994, despite the acknowledgment that Iraq continued to hide its program. The report also found continued WMD programs and other violations of UN resolutions, but don't expect the press to remind you that one of Bush's primary reasons for going to war was to enforce those same resolutions and attempt to render the U.N. relevant. And the current inspection team leader tries to salve the egos of Hans Blix and his team: "You cannot say that only the Americans or the British or the Australians currently inspecting in Iraq are the clever inspectors — and the Americans and the British and the Australians that we had were not."
Anyway, expect John Kerry to use this information as evidence that he's a smarter guy than President Bush. But when Kerry blows with the wind on this today, remember what he said at the beginning of last year:
[W]e need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime. We all know the litany of his offenses. He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation. … And now he is miscalculating America’s response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction. That is why the world, through the United Nations Security Council, has spoken with one voice, demanding that Iraq disclose its weapons programs and disarm. So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real, but it is not new. It has been with us since the end of the Persian Gulf War.” (Senator John Kerry, Remarks At Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 1/23/03)
