Javascript Menu by Deluxe-Menu.com Ariel Center for Policy Research



Ariel Center for Policy Research (ACPR)

ACPR Research

 

The Smoking Gun Did Not Go Up in Smoke

Raphael Israeli
ACPR Policy Paper No. 164, 2006

Summary

Much to the delight of the opponents of the war in Iraq, and to the consternation of Bush and Blair and their respective administrations, commission of inquiry after commission of inquiry and commentator upon commentator have wrongly concluded that there was no smoking gun in the war, since no weapons of mass destruction were found, therefore the entire rationale and justification of the war went up in smoke.

However, this essay will show that those commentators, and committees, who had nothing more than political calculations behind their minds, had falsely concluded that the absence of evidence amounted to evidence of absence. For there is much circumstantial proof that Saddam did have WMD, hid some of it before the war, transferred other parts to fellow-dictators like him in the Muslim world and destroyed some of it. But there is no better proof that he had it as the death by chemical warfare of thousands of Kurds and Iranians at the hands of Iraqis.

In short, there was a corpse of the victim, fingerprints of Saddam, blood stains and a blood trail. Only the pistol which was thrown into the river was not found. But any fair-minded court of law would have convicted the culprit nevertheless.

For the complete text of this paper in English, click here.