After 9/11, no one knew where or when the next attack might come. Saddam, our longtime antagonist, actually applauded the attacks, an indiscretion duplicated by no other international figure, save Osama bin Laden. Moreover, Saddam purposely duped world leaders and his military leaders into believing that he had weapons of mass destruction. Now we know he did not have them ready to go, but we also know that he had them available on short notice. He could have sent chemical and biological weapons in a matter of weeks to terrorists or to his intelligence agents for attacks on American soil or almost anywhere else.
The evidence is available for anyone who wants to review it. Last summer, The Associated Press reported that a "secret U.S. operation" had transferred 550 metric tons of "yellowcake," "the last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program," to Montreal for peaceful purposes. So contrary to what your opponents tell you, Mr. Bush, the strutting tyrant did have the makings for nuclear weapons. Withal, he had biological and chemical weapons available in a few weeks' notice. That is a key finding of the Iraq Survey Group.
When the president gets back to Texas, I encourage him to read the really splendid memoirs "War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism," by his undersecretary of defense for policy, Douglas J. Feith. It convincingly explains the justification for war with Saddam. Quoting the Duelfer Report on the findings from the Iraq Survey Group, Feith records that at the time of our invasion, "Iraq still possessed small but significant dual-use facilities capable of conversion to small-scale BW agent production." Small-scale, but such agents are enormously dangerous. The report continues, such dual-use facilities "could be converted for BW agent production within 4 to 5 weeks." "In sum," Feith writes, "the Iraq Survey Group confirmed Saddam's intention and capability to produce biological and chemical weapons."
Though stockpiles of such lethal weaponry never were found, we have plenty of evidence that Saddam had the facilities, the materiel, the personnel, the capability and the intent to create biological weapons. Feith writes that when Saddam had rid himself of sanctions, the evidence is he would have revitalized his WMD programs. Nothing would stop him but war.
In preparation for the Bush presidential memoirs, I suggest Mr. Bush read the Feith memoirs. Finally, Mr. President, in the spirit of the season, this politically correct editor-in-chief wishes you merry and happy .