ZMag -- The Manufactured Threat, by M.L. Rantala

Recently, George Tenet declassified some material concerning Iraq after pressure from the Senate Intelligence Committee. In his letter of October 7, 2002 to Senator Bob Graham, Tenet wrote: “Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or C.B.W. (chemical and biological weapons) against the United States.

“Should Saddam conclude that a U.S.-led attack could no longer be deterred, he probably would become much less constrained in adopting terrorist actions. Such terrorism might involve conventional means, as with Iraq’s unsuccessful attempt at a terrorist offensive in 1991, or C.B.W.

“Saddam might decide that the extreme step of assisting Islamist terrorists in conducting a W.M.D. attack against the United States would be his last chance to exact vengeance by taking a large number of victims with him”

“Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan: ...[If Saddam] did not feel threatened, is it likely that he would initiate an attack using a weapon of mass destruction?

“Senior Intelligence Witness: ...My judgment would be that the probability of him initiating an attack—let me put a time frame on it—in the foreseeable future, given the conditions we understand now, the likelihood I think would be low.

“Senator Levin: ...But what about his use of weapons of mass destruction? If we initiate an attack and he thought he was in extremis or otherwise, what’s the likelihood in response to our attack that he would use chemical or biological weapons?

“Senior Intelligence Witness: Pretty high, in my view”

When an all-stick, no-carrot policy fails to work, it is dimwitted to propose as the only alternative a much bigger stick. This is a hysterical approach, utterly devoid of any sense of proportion or justice. It urges us to rain bombs down on innocent heads in order to stop a hypothetical future attack based on flimsy evidence. We need effective weapons eradication conducted under the auspices of the UN, not a cruel unilateral policy that leaves in its wake the tragedy of unnecessary death.