Sarin discovery deserved more than a blasé response

[Hangar18]

I agree.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2001933460_collin20.html

Thursday, May 20, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

Collin Levey / Times editorial columnist
Sarin discovery deserved more than a blasé response


We felt a little like we'd fallen down a rabbit hole this week on hearing that an artillery shell that tested positive for sarin had been discovered in a roadside bomb in Baghdad. It wasn't the nasty stuff itself that was curious — as Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld intimated, some stray chemical munitions could signify any number of things, or not much at all. The extraordinary part was the tizzy the media and various noteworthies were in to discount it.

It hadn't been but a few hours since the news broke when former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix grabbed a microphone somewhere to huff that the discovery meant nothing. Others briskly offered that the shell was more likely the bounty of a scavenger hunt by yahoos who didn't even know what they had.

Fair enough to be sure: At this point, none of us knows. But even forgetting the potency of one drop of liquid sarin, when did the prospect of the accidental use of loose WMDs become reassuring?

Fingers have been chewed to the quick around the world at this same prospect for years. Anyone old enough to drink has probably watched at least one show fretting over the whereabouts of vast stockpiles from the former Soviet Union. Given that Iraq's history of using sarin gas during the Iran-Iraq war and against the Iraqi Kurds is well-documented (Saddam Hussein listed some 800 tons in his possession at one point), a twinge of concern wouldn't be inappropriate.

Unlike the possibility that Saddam was deceived by desperate scientists into believing that they were having some success with the nukes project when they weren't, sarin isn't all that tough to come by. The Japanese cult Aum Shinrykyo famously cooked up a little batch just for a subway attack back in 1995, killing a dozen with its symptomatic paralyzing of the muscles around the lungs until it smothers its victims. Its ease of use and strength make it a commonly considered possibility for fringe groups with more bloodlust than resources.

Meanwhile, we have little right to feel so casual about it. New York City this week had its first major response drill for a chemical or biological attack in the city's subway system. Walking into a basketball arena or a graduation ceremony in New York these days may feel like a trip to Fort Knox.

And we agonize over the thoroughness of security screeners at our airports. But as the train bombing in Madrid made abundantly clear, public transportation and other places where nerve gases could percolate are almost totally accessible to terrorists.

It's worth the time to measure those convening realities against the blasé attitude that greeted the re-emergence of a notorious nerve gas. Blix was habitually sanguine. After all, he told the BBC recently, "I think we still overestimate the danger of terror. There are other things that are of equal, if not greater, magnitude, like the environmental global risks."

As happy as it would be to assume Blix just has his head in the ozone, he also has an interest of his own down on Earth. Having carved his name in the history books as a Euroskeptic of the stockpiles manifesto for invading Iraq, acknowledging a possible overstatement is professionally inconvenient. A similar force is at work underplaying the recent reports of the Iraq Survey Group that it had found facilities capable of manufacturing the relevant chemical compounds and improbably large inventories of the necessary precursor ingredients.

The brass-tacks danger here is significant: The desire of Democrats to tag President Bush's re-election with going to war based on phantom weapons encourages us to ignore or minimize what we do find.

A few weeks back, Democrats raised their hackles about a Bush campaign ad that incorporated scenes from Sept. 11, 2001. Figuring out the Bush campaign's motive is no gee-whiz: Those images remain powerful enough to call us back from creeping apathy even today. Remembering the nature of what we're fighting doesn't leave adequate room for the "subtlety" that John Kerry is claiming to offer in his did-I-or-didn't-I positions on issues related to war and terrorism.

Like it or not, this country made a democratic political decision to seek to steal a march on Islamic terrorism by overthrowing Saddam and using Iraq to prod the Middle East toward reform and the greater stability that comes from democracy and economic development.

Sure, every tiddlywink of Iraq news these days will be absorbed into the political machinery of an election campaign in overdrive.

But like the memo informing the Bush administration that Osama bin Laden was maybe possibly thinking about using planes to ill effect, the discovery of a potential weapon of mass terror in Iraq is a warning we could regret missing in hindsight.

It's also a reminder of why we chose this battle in the first place.

Collin Levey writes Thursdays for editorial pages of The Times. E-mail her at [email protected]

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

 

[pawclaws]

"Like it or not, this country made a democratic political decision to seek to steal a march on Islamic terrorism by overthrowing Saddam and using Iraq to prod the Middle East toward reform and the greater stability that comes from democracy and economic development. " Well I'll be damned; somebody really is paying attention!

 

[JoseCuervo]

But funny enough, there was never a link between Saddam and Al-Quaida, so what "Islamic Terroism" was "steal"en? If you care to remember, Bin Laden actually despised Saddam....

And why on Earth would anybody think that Democracy is needed or desirable in the Middle East? Any examples where it is working???

 

[Hangar18]

Originally posted by ElkGunner:
But funny enough, there was never a link between Saddam and Al-Quaida, so what "Islamic Terroism" was "steal"en? If you care to remember, Bin Laden actually despised Saddam....

And why on Earth would anybody think that Democracy is needed or desirable in the Middle East? Any examples where it is working???

"Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi." Colin Powell, Feb 5, 2003. Al-Zarqawi made news recently. It had to do with a saw, and an American's head.


Isn't Turkey democratic? How are they worse off than say Saudi Arabia that is run by a cloaked dictatorship, which at minimum is a marxist style monarchy? Do you have any examples of a failed democracy in the middle east? "And why on Earth would anybody think that Democracy is needed or desirable in the Middle East?" It's called FREEDOM. People deserve to live free, right? You just made a value judgement that the people in the middle east do not deserve this.

 

[RockyDog]

"It's called FREEDOM. People deserve to live free, right? You just made a value judgement that the people in the middle east do not deserve this."


If we are the world freedom police, then lets go into Saudi Arabia, they supplied the 911 terrorists. They still have public beheadings and mutilations controlled by a hypocritical dictatorship.

 

[Hangar18]

RockyDog - I would not be opposed to that

 

[pawclaws]

Elkgunner I feel quite certain that the link between Al Qaeda and Iraq, (more specifically Bin Laden and Hussein) will be reveled within the next few months. My best guess is October.

No, I'm not talking about the training camps maintained in Kurdistan; although theydo represent a tangible link to most normal, perceptive, observant,rational,unbiased, and unjaded people!

 

[JoseCuervo]

Hangar,

How do you define "FREEDOM", and the way you enable it? That is a pretty subjective word, and there are other forms of government that offer "FREEDOM", that don't happen to be Democracy. Additionally, in our "FREEDOM", why don't we have the "FREEDOM" to hunt on BLM lands with out stepping in Cow Pies, Why don't we have the "FREEDOM" to fish for healthy Wild Salmon Runs in Idaho? We are as oppressed as anyone....

If we are going to be the "Freedom Police", then you are going to have to work hard to develop the criteria of who needs "Freed", and you are gonna be awful busy "Freeing" everyone from every form of Government that is not a Democracy....

 

[Nemont]

Additionally, in our "FREEDOM", why don't we have the "FREEDOM" to hunt on BLM lands with out stepping in Cow Pies, Why don't we have the "FREEDOM" to fish for healthy Wild Salmon Runs in Idaho? We are as oppressed as anyone ....

EG,
Usually you post some interesting insights into an issue then just when I think you are a pretty intelligent guy you say something like this.

So you equate living under a dictator to fishing for salmon and hunting on grazed federal lands? Maybe you should go cry to the North Korean people under Comrad Kim. Perhaps you should got to Cuba where Fidel owns everything.

Do you have the FREEDOM to bitch about things you want to see changed? Do you have the FREEDOM to work at a Profession of your own choosing? Do you have the gifts that FREEDOM has provided you? Most likely you and your family did not go to bed hungry, there is electrity at the end of the light switch, your sewer works and you have clean water. You have the FREEDOM to access quality health care. I could go on and on.

I call B.S. on the entire argument that becuase there is cow shit on BLM land that you are not free. I call B.S. that to you that lack of wild salmon are an infringement upon your freedom.
You are free to try and change it. You are free to gripe and bitch about it but you certainly are not oppressed by it.

Nemont

 

[RockyDog]

lmao! im feeling oppressed because im not free to make Paris Hilton my love slave.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Nemont,

Great post, and you proved my point. When you put your values on my "Freedom", you get different answers than I do. Just as when Dubya puts his values of "Freedom" on others.

I am not sure a High Standard of Living equates to "FREEDOM". And I am not sure that it is important. Many people around the world still live in areas without electricity, running water, and the Internet, and I would venture to guess, that they COULD be "FREE". Having those things does not make one "Free".

As I read these topics, why, if we are free, do we still have nutcases in Montana running around digging holes in the ground to live in??? They could only be doing that if they fear some sort of coming OPRESSION.

Why is it important that I have the "Freedom" to buy a gun at a gunshow with out any checks, but it is acceptable that if I buy a Car, I have to go tell the government what kind I bought?

And yes, I appreciate the "FREEDOM" to whine, but I also resent the "OPRESSION" that is the Patriot Act and Ashcroft's use of the same.

And you have to admidt, there is a sort of attractive element to a well-run Dictatorship. It is a very efficient way to run a country, and decisions get made quickly. I wouldn't have any trouble signing up to be "Dictator for Life".

 

[JoseCuervo]

Rocky,
I feel for your Opression, Bro'....

 

[Nemont]

EG,

A dictatorship only looks attractive if I get to be the dictator.

I am not sure a High Standard of Living equates to "FREEDOM". And I am not sure that it is important. Many people around the world still live in areas without electricity, running water, and the Internet, and I would venture to guess, that they COULD be "FREE". Having those things does not make one "Free".

I am not sure that a high standard of living is a measure of freedon either. It is just that when people are free to follow their own wishes and free to keep most of the fruits of their labor the standard of living increases.

Anyway you just pushed my buttons on that one.

Also if I were the dictator grazing on federal land would become a right.

Nemont

 

[Hangar18]

EG,

See the Bill of Rights. That's a start.

 

[pawclaws]

EG; we (collective US) do not give a rats ass whether anyone wants our Bill of Rights or not! What we want and must have is absolute assurance that others' concept of freedom does not include the freedom to blow up our property, take our citizens hostage, or decapitate our emigrants. That will take a comprehensive social curve shift; Iraq is where it begins.

 

[ELKCHSR]

Yep...Nut cases in Mt. digging holes, and also nut cases sitting in judgement of every one jumping to conclussions and in general being a clown, it is a great country, even a place that one can create their own private Idaho in...A great place that some can hide behind board owners shirt tails and stick their tounges out with out fear of reprisals....LMOA!!!! yep, it is a great country. A place that some one can even complain about a few cow turds with out worring about getting their heads cut off or shot because of their own ignorant comments. I love this country and take nothing for granted of what I have as some do. Of course it is not a utopia, but I wouldn't want to live in one of those places any way. One thing that is fun to watch, is full blown hypocrites spouting and touting how bad and evil it is to live here but will never put their money where their mouths are and go live in these other places they seem to constantly stick up for. It is so very easy to be a cinic and just produce lip service, it is another matter entirely to actually get off ones butt and do some thing that is constructive. I will say one thing for Buzz and Ithica, at least they act on what they belive in. One thing I have found in life is that just because some one has money and brains still doesn't mean they are really worth much if they are not willing to put those two traits to use in a possitive sence...

 

[JoseCuervo]

Hey Paws,

Why don't you tell Hangar that our "Bill of Rights" doesn't need exported? He is the one advocating taking down all forms of government that aren't Democratic.

And sorry, but I think Dubya started this one... Isn't he the former governor of Texas who started executing citizens of other countries??? Looks like Paybacks are a bitch....

I would guess there would be very few of our "emigrants" being decapitated in Iraq, if there weren't also 135,000 US Soldiers occupying their land. But, if you want to go around invading countries, and toppling governments, every time some US Citizen has a crime committed against them, then between you and Hangar, you guys are gonna need 3 militaries of the current size.

You know, it is kind of funny, but it always seems to me, that the State Department issues me a list of countries where Travel is not advised. And I seem to take some Personal responsibility to stay out of those countries. Others who don't, should not expect the US Military to go topple a government because of their hubris.

 

[ELKCHSR]

Yep...Nut cases in Mt. digging holes, and also nut cases sitting in judgement of every one jumping to conclussions and in general being a clown, it is a great country, even a place that one can create their own private Idaho in...A great place that some can hide behind board owners shirt tails and stick their tounges out with out fear of reprisals....LMOA!!!! yep, it is a great country. A place that some one can even complain about a few cow turds with out worring about getting their heads cut off or shot because of their own ignorant comments. I love this country and take nothing for granted of what I have as some do. Of course it is not a utopia, but I wouldn't want to live in one of those places any way. One thing that is fun to watch, is full blown hypocrites spouting and touting how bad and evil it is to live here but will never put their money where their mouths are and go live in these other places they seem to constantly stick up for. It is so very easy to be a cinic and just produce lip service, it is another matter entirely to actually get off ones butt and do some thing that is constructive. I will say one thing for Buzz and Ithica, at least they act on what they belive in. One thing I have found in life is that just because some one has money and brains still doesn't mean they are really worth much if they are not willing to put those two traits to use in a possitive sence...

 

[pawclaws]

Elkgunner my bet is you will see things a bit differently when Mohammed has you by the ball hair with a dagger in one hand! Get your damned facts straight bubba. Bush didn't execute anyone. That was done by judge and jury; hardly afforded to that poor schmuck trying to drum up cell phone sales. And no the country doesn't retaliate on behalf of every citizen that gets their puds in a twist; but, if you check the record you may just discover it is high time. I, one American, am damn tired of seeing our citizens treated like fair game in virtually every country we enter. I know folk charged with crimes ranging from petty theft to rape in virtually every third world nation you can name. Would you be surprised to learn that the two things these cases have in common are (1) there swas no crime committed and (2) the charges were motivated by the desire for a quick pay off. I hope your next trip over the pond you take time to reflect on the fact that (1) you are not protected by the laws of the United States. (2) if you should become involved in a traffic accident you may be subjected to the full legal system of the nation you are visiting (3) if your passport isn't a red one the only assistance you will receive from the US Embassy is the possible referral of a foreign attorney and notification of your relatives. I truly hope you never feel the angst of your butt swinging in the wind subject to the rules and regulations of a soverignty that is less compassionate, less equitable, and less than honorable than those of the nation you choose to blaspheme. You know in that respect you have more in common with Al Qaeda than you do the American citizenry; ergo, you choose to seek unfair advantage of the protection of the quirks of the system which afford all the freedom to access it and seek its destruction. You sir are without honor and wreak of the stench of the sucubus nursing the teat of freedom while biting the hand which assures that freedom.

 

[Nemont]

Nemont, it is a working light switch

At least my definition doesn't involve cow crap.

Nemont