Monday, May 17, 2004

Sarin in Iraq: Say, isn't sarin-primed ordnance a weapon of mass destruction?
A roadside bomb containing deadly sarin nerve agent exploded near a U.S. military convoy, the U.S. military said Monday. It was believed to be the first confirmed discovery of any of the banned weapons that the United States cited in making its case for the Iraq (news - web sites) war.

. . .

Two former weapons inspectors — Hans Blix and David Kay — said the shell was likely a stray weapon that had been scavenged by militants and did not signify that Iraq had large stockpiles of such weapons.

What's a couple of nerve gas shells among friends, hey? I've always thought that the best tactic for the Democrats was to be more credulous of WMD intel than even Bush. They should have been saying all along, "We know there are WMDs in Iraq, but Bush let them all slip away in his failed invasion." Finding sarin in a roadside bomb would only reinforce the point. Unfortunately, the Dems went for the quick fix (the "Phantom WMD" tactic) and are now wedded to a strategy of having to downplay something like sarin in IEDs, dismissing it as a technicality.

That said, I don't think this is terribly significant. But I would bet that many Americans are psychologically primed for a WMD discovery. Anything to relieve the unrelenting cognitive dissonance.

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