Weapons of Mass Instruction

Ron Reed observes,

These days it's hard to find an article or discussion of Iraq, whether from a pro- or anti-invasion viewpoint, that doesn't mention so-called "weapons of mass destruction," or "WMDs." From the nuke-Baghdad crowd we might call Christian Jihad, inviting ex-LaRouchies to expound on why we also ought to take out Saudi Arabia and Egypt while we're at it, all the way over to the liberals who insist that the United Nations ought to be asked to rubber-stamp Washington's plans, and even to the principled opponents of the New World Empire, everyone seems to agree that either Saddam has, or may have, or is developing, or could develop WMDs, which is universally conceded to be a Bad Thing.

Even those best in a position to know of his capacities, such as former UN chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter (who categorically states that it is impossible for Iraq, following almost eight years of UN-supervised destruction along with more than a decade - continuing even now - of the most stringent and tightly-enforced sanctions regime in history, to have developed WMDs), insist that UN inspectors should be re-admitted, and sanctions should be "smartened," so that the number of civilian victims is reduced.

Left unexamined in this discourse is the assumption that either the United States itself or the United Nations as a proxy of the US State Department can be relied upon as a safe repository for such weapons. However, even a cursory examination of the history of such weapons and their use, if unencumbered by ideological baggage, would show the folly of such an assumption. (For that reason, such an examination is never undertaken.)

...I would put forth the proposition that it is far less dangerous to contemplate WMDs in the possession of a brutal but rational dictator like Saddam Hussein, who at most harbors only regional ambitions and certainly knows the consequences were he ever to try to attack his neighbors with such weapons, than to allow their continued possession by a collection of hubristic psychopaths of overweening pride, a vastly inflated sense of self-importance, no experience with being on the receiving end of total war, and a vaulting and unlimited vision of refashioning the globe and modern history in their own image.

This latter group, booted and spurred and lashing the horses of the apocalypse toward the abyss, consists of the terroristic thugs and war criminals who have long made up the government of the United States, now styling itself the "world's only superpower," and openly lusting for empire.

Yowzas. That last paragraph is particularly harsh.