Homeland Insecurity:
After over two months of searching, and with the exception of a few large-breasted women, Saddam Hussien virtually has no weapons of mass destruction. Of course try telling that to GW, Bush is focused on Saddam like a paranoid gangster. First he called for the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (AKA UN weapons inspectors or Unmovic), then he called for the Central Intelligence Agency to go to Iraq and search for some nukes. What Bush seems to want is war against a nation that's already waving the white flag. Even a growing number of White conservatives are starting to question the Bush administrations seeming need to attack Iraq. A Time magazine survey asks which country poses the greatest threat to the world, N. Korea, Iraq, or the US. The American citizens let themselves be heard, the US got the most votes at 80.6%, Iraq of the Axis of Evil was a very distant 2nd with 10.7%, and N. Korea garnered 8.8% of the public's opinion that they are the greatest threat to the world.
Sixty days after the UN weapon inspectors first entered Iraq, chief inspector Hans Blix is still unsure as to whether or not Saddam is as big a threat as the White House is making him out to be, and world support toward the US against Iraq is growing more unsure everyday. There are still those within Bush circle that will help him accomplish what he wants regardless of public or internal opposition. In October of 2001 he established the Whitehouse Office of Homeland Security, described as the most extensive federal government reorganization since Harry Truman signed the National Security Act. This organization-the 15th executive department in Bush's cabinet-will compile information from the FBI, CIA, DIA, NSA and dozens of other government agencies, against perceived terrorist threats. The actual bill H.R. 5005; The Homeland Security Act of 2002 was signed in November of last year. While this project was months in the works and won't be completed for months ahead, Tom Ridge the former Homeland Security Advisor was sworn-in as of January of this year as Secretary of Homeland Security.
Expect Ridge to be hard-line, a former pro-death penalty Pennsylvania Governor would be the kind of war hawk Bush is looking for. Conservative voters are up-in-arms over this initiative because they know this is mainly against Saddam and they still have yet to know if he is truly the threat he is framed as being, or are we shooting a bazooka at a fly? The question with many of them-aside from its overall federal slant over the rights of respective states, is if Bush is using the weapons issue as a pretext to what? Oil? Defense Industry stocks? War against the forces of evil? Yes Iraq will lie about their arms just as they've done in the past, yes they are dangerous, but are they a world threat? No.
As it stands the UN inspectors say there are only indications that there is Anthrax, and that nerve gases and chemical bombs are not fully accounted for, especially since the '91 Gulf War. It doesn't matter really, if a slingshot is found lying around, or a child is found with a straw and a spitball, these could still count enough of a "weapons of mass destruction" pretext for Bush to go charging into Iraq as soon as possible. The big fear of nuclear weapons in Iraq is not only unfounded, it's downright impossible. You need a large facility to produce nuclear weapons, one with hundreds of scientists. Just the construction of such a facility would not have gone unnoticed by US satellites. Expect any enemy to not admit to they're arms regardless.