Sofia wrote:The fact of how far-reaching Saddam's weapons program and terror connections have not been closed as a subject as of yet.
Now that he is in custody, the facts will most likely begin coming out. No matter what these facts are, I will accept them--if they can be proven. Until then, I wait for the facts.
The choice of words here implies that, what we have thus far, are not facts but the absence of facts, and that the
real facts are still to come out. But
in fact (heh), we do have facts already - of course.
The facts are that, thus far, despite an enormous deployment of researchers and troops on the matter, the occupation authorities have not found any evidence of Saddam's Iraq having possessed any WMD at the time of the invasion. The fact is that neither the many Iraqi scientists that the occupation authorities have talked to (voluntarily or co-erced), nor any of the prominent regime figures from the deck of cards that they have captured, have ever admitted to Iraq having had WMD, or even supplied any information that helped the troops to find evidence of such WMD. Which is amazing, really, that not a single one would have caved to the pressure strategies that otherwise always tend to work, as they even did with the Big One, on finding Saddam - extraordinary - unless there really werent any WMD, of course. The fact is, that David Kay himself - Timber's last big hope on finding evidence of WMD - has asked to be resigned from the job of finding them. The fact is that even the US government seems to have given up, with Bush saying, "what's the difference [between some evidence of some programs to develop WMD at some point in time and actual WMD], anyway", instead of insisting that Iraq had any.
The fact is, also, that all of the leads Cheney c.s. have suggested that would connect Saddam with 9/11, have proven to be false. Atta was not in Prague to meet with Saddam agents. Documents about 9/11 terrorists having received training in Iraq are presumed to be forgeries. The terrorist camp of Ansar-al-Islam was in Kurdish territory and the Ansars were in fact enemies of the Saddam regime. The only link I know of, is of one freewheeling terrorist of whom we know that he belonged to Al-Qaeda at some
later point in time, once had an operation in a luxury Baghdad hospital. I think you can get more dirt than all that on most ME governments when it comes to Al-Qaeda, whether its Saudi-Arabia, Pakistan or even Iran (which has little control over what happens in its remote regions bordering Afghanistan).
It may seem like I'm into some odd linguistic nitpicking here, but these are all, already,
facts - not some
lack of facts, but actual facts.
Now you may be right, and Saddam's capture may be the long-awaited breakthrough in this respect, and NEW facts may come up. New facts that will change the picture on WMD and Al-Qaeda ties. You're right - the subject hasnt been closed yet (though the US government doesnt seem to hold out much hope on the issue anymore).
But those would be NEW facts - it wouldnt be a question of "
the facts finally coming out" - its just that these would be the first of all the facts that
have come out that would actually prove the Bush government's case. If you've been "waiting for the facts", then there's been loads of facts already - just not the ones you may have been hoping for. So the more honest thing to say would be:
Quote:Now that he is in custody, [the facts] new facts will most likely begin coming out. No matter what these facts are, I will accept them--if they can be proven. Until then, I wait for [the facts] facts that might prove me right, after all.
