Answer

Where Are the WMD?

A drug bust in Texas…

Outside a Texas border town, the local cops, along with agents from the ATF, DEA and Border Patrol, surrounded a broken-down farmhouse and barn complex. For several years, the nondescript bean farm had been serving as a regional drug processing and distribution center for a large crime organization. Opium derivatives poured out of this facility, which was nicknamed by the DEA “Little Columbia,” to end up on the streets of San Antonio and Austin. Furthermore, surveillance performed by each of the agencies independently confirmed the presence of the drugs as well as an extensive cache of automatic weapons. Two undercover agents from the DEA had even spent time in Little Columbia covertly filming all aspects of the sophisticated operation.

Strangely enough, when it came time to “hit” the Little Columbia facility, the local ACLU arrived and served an injunction blocking the move to shut down the illegal drug operation. Such were the methods of the ACLU that the law enforcement officers, gathered in secret around the perimeter of the barn complex, were exposed because of the commotion. The police and federal agents left. After addressing the legal issues, the agents returned to assault the complex a week later only to encounter the same obstinate group of lawyers with a new injunction from a different judge. The police and agents retreated again, to the general amusement of the “farmhands.”

The authorities eventually raided Little Columbia and discovered absolutely no drugs or weapons. A local reporter, standing on a hill overlooking the operation, turned to his cameraman and said, "Can you believe it? There were no drugs in Little Columbia after all! This raid was unjustified! There never were any drugs; the cops and the feds lied. They made up the story about the drugs just to steal the bean crop."

Of course, you laugh at this tale - the reporter’s comments are idiotic. Yet, the story above describes the circumstances present during the lead up to the Iraq war, and the comments of the reporter, so clearly inane in this setting, parallel the comments of liberals everywhere about WMD.

This made-up story makes a critical point in the WMD debate: why are only the wrong questions being asked about WMDs, and, more importantly, why are conservatives conceding the premise that there are no WMDs?

• FACT: WMD existed.
• FACT: WMD had been used in the past.
• FACT: Independent authorities confirmed the existence of WMD.
• FACT: The owner of the WMD knew that an attack was coming because of the WMD.
• FACT: Lots of time passed.
• FACT: The assault took place.
• FACT: No significant caches of WMD have been found in Iraq (Note: sarin-tipped artillery shells have been found).

The only logical question given these facts is: "Where are the WMD?" Just as the only logical question in the above story is: "Where are the drugs and weapons? Where did the bad guys, given time and adequate notice, move the drugs and weapons?"

The important question that remains regarding WMD is: "Where have they been moved?" The quietly reported seizure of sarin gas on the Syrian/Jordanian border gives us an idea as to the answer to that question.

Copyright © 2004 Dan Hallagan. All Rights Reserved.