Wanna bet on WMDs?

Wayne Ma
Daily Illini (U. Illinois)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (U-WIRE) ˘ Let's say I'm walking down the street one day, when I see a suspicious man in the corner of my eye. Is it OK for me to shoot him if I search his house later and find a gun and plans indicating he's going to break into my house and kill my family the very next day?

This was the analogy I usually gave when arguing against the war in Iraq. Sure, the stakes were high. If Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was able to hide them from the United Nations, there might have been serious consequences down the road. However, I chose to put my faith in the international community, and eventually they proved me right.

Before the war began, I gave Saddam Hussein's regime the benefit of the doubt. My friend, a staunch Republican, told me I was naive to believe that Iraq was fully cooperating with weapons inspectors. He scoffed at the notion that Saddam Hussein was innocent until proven guilty, if only because the dictator's past was so damning.

The two of us were deadlocked, and as a result, we made a wager. If WMD were found during or six months after a successful war in Iraq, I owed him $1,000. If they weren't found by then, he owed me the same amount.

Last week I received the first in a series of payments from him. Sadly, I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for his predicament. Then I remembered what he said to me that first day, after I pleaded with him to lower the bet to $100.

"You're going to have to learn that your actions have real consequences," he said.

Well, I hope he learned his lesson. Actions do have real consequences, especially if you shoot first and ask questions later.

I admit there were a few close calls. At the start of the war, the news reported Saddam had given the authorization for his lieutenants to use WMD. Fortunately, those attacks never materialized.

Then there was that whole business with the buried storage drums, which initially tested positive for WMD ˘ only to end up being harmless fertilizer.

Finally, I seem to remember President Bush attempting to clarify his State of the Union address ˘ arguing that when he discussed WMD, he also meant weapons programs. He then referred to the two mobile laboratories found buried beneath the Iraqi desert ˘ laboratories a British report later revealed were only used for the production of hydrogen to fill artillery balloons.

So now that I'm rolling in the dough, perhaps I'll donate the proceeds to a Democratic presidential candidate ˘ a politician wise enough to know we live in reality, not fantasy; someone who knows a solution to uncertainty is purely delusional.

Or maybe I'll give it to the United Nations, where I'll make note that it should go toward a country that actually needs a humanitarian mission, like the Democratic Republic of Congo or Burma.

Then again, I probably should donate it to the International Committee of the Red Cross, if only because we must persuade them to go back into a war zone. Citizens of Iraq need all the help they can get, now that we've started this quagmire.

I suppose I could use the money to partially pay off my share of the national debt. This might help cushion the blow of losing $87.5 billion of the domestic budget to Iraqi reconstruction, money that could have been spent on an economic stimulus package in this country.

Or perhaps I should make another wager. How long will it take for the Bush administration to realize that a pre-emptive strike policy goes against the very nature of democracy and good governance? Although the security stakes are high, the risks of being wrong are just perilous as the risks of being right.

In the end, it's unfortunate my friend continues to argue with me even after I've squeezed his wallet so badly. He's retreated to the humanitarian justifications for the war, even though he once told me Iraq was different than say, Liberia, because in the case of the former, we had a security interest at stake. In all fairness, maybe he meant oil security.

"Write your damn propaganda," he says. "I know I'm right."

Wanna bet?

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