Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 231 Sat. January 15, 2005  
   
Editorial


Editorial
Giving up search for WMD in Iraq
A conclusive indictment
The decision to stop looking for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq has only proven the fact that the reasoning behind invading the country was totally based on lies. The whole world has been coming to the conclusion that there were no WMDs at all. It was attested by various reports, agencies, task forces who were given the job to find WMDs. It may have taken longer than expected for the US to reach this point, but the bottom line is most of us are not surprised by the announcement that the US has discontinued the search. We would have been more surprised if they had found any.

President Bush had long ago changed his tune to removing Saddam. But the fact remains that the world was duped into believing a lie. Thousands of innocent people were killed, prisoners were tortured, completely disregarding human rights, and the country is now in a condition of total instability. It wouldn't be wrong to say that the credibility of the US as a superpower has been highly diminished.

This was probably the only case where an armed invasion on a sovereign country was initiated on artificial justification based on some figment of imagination by some high US officials. It makes the invasion not only illegal, but also unjustified and immoral.

Now the question is -- who will be held responsible for all the lies, false statements and wrong evidences that were dished out by the US and its allies to justify one of the most unjustified invasion in the recent history? Would President Bush and Prime Minister Blair publicly acknowledge that their justifications for invading Iraq were based on wrong evidences? Would it be possible to make any one of them stand trial for lying -- about Saddam possessing WMD hence the country needed to be invaded -- not only to their own citizens but also to the rest of the world?

Would the common Iraqis get justice for the injustice meted out to them? Would they ever be compensated for the trauma they encountered in last two years? We pray that they do.