The UN Weapons Inspectors didn’t find any weapons of mass destruction. Big surprise there, although they can ramble more or less wherever they want, the Blue Hat Crew is closely supervised by minders who are in constant radio contact with Saddam’s head office.
Saddam, not being stupid, merely evil, doesn’t leave his bad things out in the rain. There are no big buildings marked “Mass Destruction Weapons Factory #12” in downtown Bagdad. The stuff is spread out, repackaged and hidden in other things that make up a civic infrastructure, like power plants, water filtration works, machine shops and the like. Incidentally, Iraq is about 3/4 desert, which makes hiding things easy in a big sandbox outside the built up areas.
As an example, CFB Carp (Canadian Forces Base) outside of Ottawa was essentially unknown to everyone in Ottawa for years. Same with the CFB Perth and a couple of others. Even in a full blown Parliamentary democracy, with freedom of he press and the other stuff, very, very, very few people knew that there were full blown nuclear bomb proof bunkers around Ottawa as well as some very good electronic listening posts sniffing the airwaves. Therefore, in a dictatorship, with absolute control over essentially everything, can you hide stuff you don’t want people to find?
The downside here is that the US is a full-blown democracy, with freedom of the press. The media has been reporting troop movements rather well, in their quest to have the best, most up to date information. The media has also been doing a good job of postulating how things might go down, some of it wildly speculative, and some dead on the money. Does Saddam need to put more spies into Kuwait and Qatar to see how things are building up? He’s only got to turn on Cable 33 and watch CNN.
I’m not going to say we should restrict the media, as I believe a free and unfettered media is a good thing. But I also believe that the military should ask the media, nicely, to shut the fuck up. The media will go along with it mostly and be more discreet in its reporting.
The other step from the military is to stop giving press conferences: “We’re not talking about it. It is a Secret. Shut The Fuck Up.” should be the only response from any military person either here or there at least until the manure and the ventilator come together.
Now, I trust the military, a bit. And I trust the media, a bit. The task is to kick Saddam out and he doesn’t need the information as to how and when and where we’re going to do it, handed to him on a silver platter. I am willing to see the media cut out of the loop of information right now to keep from telling that armed nutbar how we’re doing on getting ready to hoof him one up the backside.
I know that seems contradictory, but the cost of a free media right now will be measured in human lives in a few weeks. As far as I’m concerned, one soldier’s life is worth all the Conrad Blacks, Izzy Aspers, Ted Turners and Rupert Murdochs in pursuit of ratings and circulation numbers and media ‘glory’ of having the story first.
I can live with that contradiction just fine thanks. We’re going to war. That is a terrible thing and I don’t like it. But if we’re going to go, let’s not panty-waist around. Go. Do. Win. Come home.
RoadDave 