WASHINGTON -- Never mind finding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, intones U.S. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a bad man and "our war to liberate Iraq was right and just." Liberal pundit Nat Hentoff agrees, calling humanitarianism "the most compelling reason for war."
Some war advocates in America are attempting to use Hussein's crimes to deflect criticism over the Bush administration's failure to find Baghdad well-armed with weapons of mass destruction. Says Tom Adkins, publisher of CommonConservative.Com: "Even without terrible weapons, someone should have done this long ago." Don't the graves discovered after Hussein's defeat matter, ask several pundits?
Administration supporters want to talk about something else because Iraqi WMD were the core of the administration's case for war. Hussein will be disarmed, intoned President George W. Bush. The Iraqi dictator supposedly had enough chemical and biological weapons to kill millions of people. But the conquering armies have found little. Despite the capture of high-level officials, who have an incentive to deal. Despite large rewards promised for information.