Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Iraq and Niger, again
Christopher Hitchens, using mostly small words, explains again how Iraq tried to buy "yellowcake" uranium from Niger in 1999, after it had kicked out the U.N. inspectors.
It is obvious today, as it was in 2003, that there was sufficient evidence that Iraq had tried to buy yellowcake that it would have been reckless for any American president to have assumed that it had not. That domestic critics of George Bush and foreign opponents of the United States continue to insist that there was no "proof" of this is transportingly irrelevant. If we have learned one thing in dealing with Iran and North Korea, there will rarely be proof of illegal activity until the terrorist state in question is too close to a bomb for us to do anything about it (Libya being the delightful exception to that general rule). "Proof" is not, and must not be, the standard. My standard, which naturally I wish the world would adopt, is whether there is sufficient evidence of an atomic bomb program that it would be reckless for the leaders of the West to assume otherwise.
CWCID: Instapundit.
It is obvious today, as it was in 2003, that there was sufficient evidence that Iraq had tried to buy yellowcake that it would have been reckless for any American president to have assumed that it had not. That domestic critics of George Bush and foreign opponents of the United States continue to insist that there was no "proof" of this is transportingly irrelevant. If we have learned one thing in dealing with Iran and North Korea, there will rarely be proof of illegal activity until the terrorist state in question is too close to a bomb for us to do anything about it (Libya being the delightful exception to that general rule). "Proof" is not, and must not be, the standard. My standard, which naturally I wish the world would adopt, is whether there is sufficient evidence of an atomic bomb program that it would be reckless for the leaders of the West to assume otherwise.
CWCID: Instapundit.
1 Comments:
By 
ScurvyOaks, at
Tue Apr 11, 11:46:00 AM:
Btw, TH, did you read the WaPo editorial on Sunday titled "A Good Leak," which recognizes that Ambassador Wilson's report from his trip supported the conclusion that Iraq sought uranium in Niger? Nice to see some headway on this point, and on the fact that, as Wapo said, "Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth."
What continues to baffle me is that people (in this case apparently Libby) commit perjury in the course of speaking to law enforcement officials concerning conduct that is not itself criminal. Haven't we all seen people go to jail again and again for the cover-up, not the deed?
