Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to re: Unintended consequences

It's foolish to demand certainty in an uncertain world
Larry J — (archived)

There was a period of about 5 years when there were no UN inspections in Iraq. That left Saddam a lot of time to do stuff. If, and this is a big if, he sent WMD materials out of Iraq, he could've done that any time during those years.

Well, darn, Larry, then why the utter conviction that WMD were in Iraq right before the war? One minute you and Tom are arguing that all the intelligence reports of present-day WMD in Iraq couldn't be wrong, now you're arguing that they might have been utterly wrong. How is this a better excuse?

So, Iraq admitted to possessing chemical weapons. They present no evidence of their destruction. Does a reasonable person:

1. Believe the weapons probably still exist
2. Believe the weapons were destroyed

It really is that simple.

In the real world, people have to make decisions the best they can on admittedly imperfect information. Despite all the billions we spend on intelligence gathering each year (more like tens of billions), the end result is still far from perfect knowledge. What should any president do, refuse to make any decision until the mythical day when the knowledge is "perfect" or make the best decision on available information? Some people have blasted Bush for not acting on sketchy knowledge about the 9-11 attacks. They now blast him for acting on less than perfect information before taking out Saddam. Intellectual consistancy (or honesty) doesn't seem like their strong suit.

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