This battle is lost.
"There are no WMD"
At least that is the public perception and the arguments of the anti war pundit. Minor details like those finds that have been made, soldiers that have been exposed, documents reference transfers of them to Syria, facilities found sanitized, Iraqi regime members making sworn statements to the effect of their existence is all brushed aside.
Unless we find a giant bunker with 20 tons of WMD in one place all marked "Saddams secret WMD cache." the MSM will continue to report about “No substantial finds of WMD” (as Newsweek did). Even if we found a large stockpile, many would claim it was planted. The battle over public perception is lost.
The battle of public opinion is lost UNTIL these weapons reappear. Then the anti-war pundit, MSNBC, CBS etc will go on as if they never denied these weapons existence. They will report as if they never took a position on this issue. Don’t believe me? You watch! Remember the MSM and how the beat on Bush and his “stupid” his “Cowboy” his “unilateral” and “destabilizing” effort to build a missile defense shield? Those worthless cowards in Europe used those exact arguments as well reference a missile defense shield and today the same nations that engaged in name calling are rushing to ensure coverage themselves under such a shield. Those who used the false arguments of “no WMD found” as a false pretense to justify doing nothing will just slither on and focus on some new topic they can attack even after the WMD do resurface, and the will.
Syria did not take those WMD to do noting with them. Eventually these nonexistent WMD will reappear. Let the issue rest, at least for now.
What strikes me as odd is that our administration does not rub these things into the faces of those who opposed and bad mouthed us years ago. Why do we let them off the hook so easy? Why do we today not mention missile defense to the Germans and French who are scrabbling to do the same but bad mouthed us for it in 1999? Why does the Bush administration not mention Kyoto, a protocol they refused to sign and claimed was unrealistic, and were criticized over but Germany and many others are in gross violation of today? Eventually even the WMD issue will be proven as correct, but WHO CARES if the Bush administration never makes an issue of it!
Bush should capitalize on issues like missile defense and Kyoto but instead lets them blow by.