Chief Inspector Clousseau… er, Duelfer… files for asylum in France

Picking up from David Kay, Chief American Weapons Inspector Charles Duelfer released his long awaited report on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction today, with the report concluding what yours truly told you for the better part of a year before the war of aggression against the Iraqi people in 2003: Saddam had bubkes.
In short, no stockpiles of nucular weapons, no bio-hazards, no chemical weapons: no nothing. A few balsa wood air-drones that the President’s minions tried to equate with ICBMs, some programs that stopped dead in the 1990’s, and otherwise: nothing. Oh wait– once sanctions were lifted, and international attention removed (as if either were going to happen while Saddam breathed), then Saddam had THE INTENTION to revivify his weapons programs.
Nice.
I’m disappointed in the guys from “my team”, Kid Kerry and Pretty Boy Edwards, for not owning up to the fact that their Iraq war vote was “a mistake”. Grown-ups admit mistakes: when we learn that our earlier decision was based on insufficient facts, and the facts we learn show that what we did before was what we call “wrong”, then we “admit our mistake”, and behave, you know, like GROWNUPS. We expect the President to never admit he was ever wrong about anything: the Boy King is a grown-up neither by temperament nor achievement. It does disturb me, however, that John Kerry isn’t man enough just to admit that: I really don’t think “swing voters” would be put off by it. (Obviously, while I assume this has been focus grouped to death, I really think its more about Kerry being an egomaniac and an asshole than it is about fear of the voters.)
Anyway– that said– this should finally put this question to bed: Saddam had nothing. Maybe Saddam did a masterful job of convincing us he had weapons that he didn’t in a bluff that backfired. Or maybe, the Bushmen just wanted this war, and wouldn’t take no for an answer, the cost in blood and treasure and the evidence be damned.
Doesn’t matter: Iraq had bubkes, while OBL is still out there, and things continue to blow up every day somewhere in Greater Baghdad, and all too frequently in other venues like Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco, Spain, Saudi Arabia… you get the idea.
Frankly, given that Dick Cheney has now for years been saying that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction, even contradicting the President himself at times to do it, one wonders if this report even matters.
A key reason Edwards won the debate– and while we can argue about the score he won it by, I won’t accept that Cheney won (and some rightie ideologues now compare his performance not to Edwards’ but to Bush’s)– is because he systematically and (thank God) viciously took apart the link between Saddam Hussein and September 11th– a link Bush and Cheney have rested their entire government on for over three years now. While Dirty Dick simply lied about having ever said he made the link, Edwards would not let him get away with it, and kept hammering, until the (green) blood starting oozing out of Dick’s mouth and smoke came out of his ears.
Again: Bush has done his damndest to put this sort of thing off as long as possible; I can’t figure out why having kept this report at bay this long, it surfaces now 27 days before the election. I continue to wonder if the disciplined GOP spin machine is just finally breaking down at the worst possible time.