Tuesday, July 22, 2003 | 9:02 a.m.
If Saddam watched TV, he had to have heard the words "regime change" repeated over and over again and he had to have known they meant his power, presidency, palaces, political party and his life were about to become history. And, yet, we're expected to believe this evil, cunning, maniacal, power-hungry dictator arbitrarily decided not to use his huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction -- instead, he passively stood by and let his whole world come to an end.
If Saddam was the clear and present danger Bush described, he could've, and would've, used the WMD he'd been stockpiling. From Saddam's perspective, it was now or never, use them or lose them. Yet he never used them to defend himself or his country.
Destroying WMD was the stated goal and primary reason for war. Now that we can't seem to find them, however, we're told it was merely "one" of many "other" reasons. These "other" reasons may or may not be valid. The point is they were never told, polled or subjected to congressional or public debate. We were simply rushed, manipulated and frightened into waging war to defend ourselves against phantom weapons and phantom threats from a country that, although a brutal dictatorship, in reality, did nothing to us.
Republicans spent $70 million investigating President Clinton for anything and everything "gate." It's now time to investigate Bush for "weapons gate."
JOYCE SEGAL
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