The Real Evidence of Iraqi Weapons
You probably know that Iraq was a closed society until after May of 2003, after the US caused the fall of Saddam. Did you know of the many many mass graves? If so, did you alert anyone in the world to that fact? The human rights agencies, for instance? If you did, what did they do? If you didn't, why didn't you if you knew?
Did the human rights groups, or the anti-war groups respond to this article?
GUEST OPINION: The Real Evidence of Iraqi Weapons
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
illinoisleader.com
- By Peter Karlovics of Gurnee, IL
Iraqi forces killed this Kurdish woman and child with poison gas in Halabja, 1998.
(Photo by Ramazan Ozturk/Sipa Press.)
OPINION -- It was a picture of gruesome proportions. A dead Kurdish mother clutched her deceased child, curled around him in a protective fashion. She could not save him, or herself.
This mother and her son were two of the victims of Saddam Hussein's past use of weapons of mass destruction - the very weapons that war opponents now claim do not exist.
From their grave, this protective mother and her son provide part of the evidence of a regime that not only possessed weapons of mass destruction, but also did not hesitate to use them. Apparently, in grasping for straws to oppose an American military victory, opponents to President Bush have chosen to close their eyes to this picture.
American military personnel sacrificed their lives to liberate Iraq. War opponents devalue the lives of these honorable Americans when they suggest that those lives lost in the liberation of Iraq served no useful purpose. In Illinois alone, seven honorable Americans serving in the military were lost during the fighting to liberate Iraq: Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre (USMC), Pvt. Jonathan L. Gifford (USMC), SSgt Lincoln D. Hollinsaid (US Army), Cpl. Evan T. James (USMC), LCpl. Nicholas B. Leiboeker (USMC), LCpl. Jakub H. Kowalik (USMC), and Spc. Brandon J. Rowe (US Army). We must never forget these heroes who served their country, and left their world a better place.
It is not that I question the patriotism of President Bush's opponents; rather, I question their humanity. No goodhearted person could oppose removing Saddam Hussein from power, after looking at his record of human rights abuses, support for terrorism, and expansionist tendencies.
From the testimony of Iraqi refugees, we learned that Saddam Hussein developed a system of brutality against his own people. From Saddam's past actions, we knew that Saddam Hussein presented a threat to neighboring countries, attacking Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990, with designs on Saudi Arabia. Saddam Hussein had Hitler-like expansionist designs on the Middle East.
After Iraq was liberated, American servicemen captured terrorist Abu Abbas in Baghdad. War opponents with a foggy memory conveniently do not recall that it was terrorist Abbas who threw a wheelchair-bound American into the sea to die during a terrorist hijacking of a cruise ship. This terrorist, along with all of the terrorists who have trained in Iraqi provided training camps, found safe haven in Saddam's Iraq. Weapons of mass destruction can also have two legs.
Coalition forces also made the grizzly discovery of 15,000 people buried in mass graves, verifying that Saddam Hussein was a murderous dictator of barbaric proportions. Freed Iraqi citizens have given numerous accounts of the disappearance, torture and death of Iraqis at the hands of Saddam's secret police. Weapons of mass destruction can also include the tools of terror that a regime uses to torture and murder its own citizens.
Yet, to President Bush's opponents, none of these facts justify Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Opponents to the war claim that, because American troops have not immediately found chemical and biological weapons caches after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, the entire military operation was unjustified.
In reality, our immediate lack of success in finding weapons of mass destruction should not provide a source of comfort for our liberal friends. Instead, they should be alarmed. Where are Saddam's unaccounted stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons materials, and who has control of them now?
We know that Saddam Hussein possessed a variety of weapons of mass destruction and was working to develop more. The Iraqi Army had more battlefield experience in deploying chemical weapons than any modern military force in our time.
During the Iran-Iraq war, between 1983 and 1988, Saddam Hussein extensively used chemical weapons such as nerve and blister agent against Iran. In 1984, Iraq was the first nation to use a nerve agent on the battlefield. During the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein used Tabun nerve agent to kill 5,500 Iranians, and used mustard blister agent to kill 16,000 Iranians.
In 1987, Saddam Hussein attacked civilian populations within Iraq, launching chemical attacks against 20 small villages. In March of 1988, hundreds of Kurdish civilians were murdered in a chemical weapons attack on the town of Halabja. Throughout his attacks on the Kurds, Saddam Hussein used multiple chemical agents such as mustard agent, nerve agents sarin, tabun and VX, and according to some sources, cyanide as well.
In 1992, after the Iraqi defeat in the Persian Gulf War, Iraq was required to provide a full, final and complete disclosure (FFCD) to United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) inspectors. After the Iraqi disclosure was contradicted by information provided by various European Governments, Iraq filed a new FFCD in March of 1995.
After the March 1995 FFCD, Hussein Kamal, Saddam Hussein's son-in-law and former head of Iraqi military industries, defected. It was Hussein Kamal who provided evidence that Iraq had conducted large-scale development of VX nerve agent. Thereafter, Iraq issued a statement that it produced only 260 liters of VX agent, which was quickly proven false, and thereafter, Iraq admitted to producing over 3.9 tons of VX. UNSCOM has documented that Iraq under Saddam Hussein had the ingredients to make 200 tons of VX.
After Iraq was caught in numerous inaccuracies, it filed yet another FFCD in June of 1996. Thereafter, UNSCOM inspectors gave up on any hope of cooperation with Saddam Hussein's government, and left Iraq in November of 1998. Weapons inspectors were never able to find numerous chemical and biological agents, and the ingredients necessary to make more.
The finding of anthrax on equipment at the Iraqi Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine (FDMV) plant at Al Daura in 1996 has never been explained. Outstanding quantities phosphorous trichloride, thionyl chloride, and phosphorus trichloride, chemical ingredients used to produce various nerve agents, have never been found. Also missing is 191 tons of NaCN and 140 tons of DMA HCI, which are the ingredients necessary to produce Tabun, a blister agent, as well as 550 artillery shells and 450 bombs containing Mustard, another blister agent. These are some of the concerns that the prior Saddam Hussein regime failed to answer.
In 2002, after President Bush threatened military action to enforce U.N. resolutions, Saddam Hussein's regime allowed UNSCOM back into Iraq. The pattern of deceit and obfuscation continued, and Iraq failed to account for previously produced weapons of mass destruction. New weapons inspections could not uncover the location of weapons of mass destruction without Iraqi cooperation and full disclosure. Since Saddam Hussein's regime failed to cooperate and disclose their stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction as required by United Nations resolution, UNSCOM was unable to complete its mission.
Removing Saddam Hussein from power, by itself, is sufficient justification for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Yet, war opponents have chosen to ignore the mass graves and torture chambers in order to criticize the war. The American people should ignore the criticisms of war protesters and support freedom for the Iraqi people.
As to those who remain skeptical of Saddam Hussein's capability to develop, maintain, and use weapons of mass destruction, remember the picture of the dead Kurdish woman clinging to her dead son. This picture is worth one thousand words of evidence.
Peter S. Karlovics
Chairman,
Warren Township Republican Organization |
