Remember when the rallying cry from the left was "Show me the WMDs?" Well, according to this story from the Assoicated (with terrorists) Press, the last of Saddam's uranium "yellow cake" just made port in Canada.Where was this stuff? Surely it wasn't IN Iraq...
"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.Well, I'll be...it was in Iraq. Where our friends on the left said there were no WMD programs at all!
I know, I know...we stopped the flow of the chocolate rivers with the gumdrop trees on their shores in war for oil. Of course, the reality is that Saddam was an evil tyrant who abused his people and had the ambitions of becoming a nuclear power. That he'd use biological weapons on his own people is evidence enough for me...
Anyway, I just thought I'd take a moment to illustrate that once again, the left is wrong on yet another issue.
7/13 UPDATE: I've received some criticism from several folks that I think requires some clarification on my part because some of it is fair and some of it isn't.
One area which I think my critics have gotten this story wrong is the supposed fact that this yellowcake was under IAEA seal since prior to the invasion. According to this AFP piece [HT: Sticks and Stones], the 550 metric tons of uranium yellow cake was turned over to the IAEA after it was discovered by US troops AFTER the invasion.
The yellow cake was discovered by US troops after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq at the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Facility south of Baghdad, and was placed under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency.Near as I can tell, that means that this material was not previously known about nor was it under IAEA watch.
The fair piece of criticism comes from my first sentence. Yellowcake, by itself, isn't a weapon. I should have refined the argument to center around the WMD programs which Saddam had and not the weapons themselves. I left out a word and the criticism is fair on that point.
However, the notion that the lack of WMD's somehow de-legitimizes the war in some way is not a position that I accept. WMD's were not the sole justification for going to war, but that argument did become the centerpiece for doing so.
The presence of the programs under Saddam's control that prompted the need for regime change and not the weapons themselves. In fact, it is the absence of the weapons themselves that makes the military option more available. Diplomacy had run its course after 12 years and 17 UN resolutions; it was vital for the region and American security interests, to shut down those programs for good.
This yellowcake could be “further enriched as fuel for nuclear weapons.” Even if it were true that this material was under the supposed watchful eye of the IAEA, why wasn't it destroyed or removed? We're supposed to trust El Baradei and the IAEA with it? There are plenty of reasons to suspect El Baradei's loyalty to non-proliferation including his promise to resign if Israel or the US should do his job for him and eliminate Iran's ambitions for a nuclear weapon.
While I don't think this find vindicates the Bush administration on the claim of stockpiles of WMD, it was a serious threat that should have been handled. Mock me for that if you want, but I'll sleep at night just fine thank you very much...
