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What weapons?

Weapons of mass destruction haven't surfaced in Iraq, government's reasoning questionable

Before going to war with Iraq in March, the U.S. government said it had "evidence" from numerous intelligence organizations showing, beyond the shadow of a doubt, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. It seems now evidence was anything but intelligent.

The Bush administration has two options: find these weapons supposedly so great in numbers no one could miss them, or fess up to the public and say faulty intelligence was used.

In either event, it's Congress' responsibility to push the rest of the government to take responsibility for its claims.

On April 9, coalition forces took control of Baghdad, Iraq's capital. Later President George W. Bush said the war was all but over. In the following weeks, troops experienced skirmishes with Iraqi's upset with U.S. occupation after Saddam's regime was overthrown.

So where are the weapons of mass destruction?

Some Americans didn't support the war, saying the administration had ulterior motives, such as taking control of Iraq's oil reserves. Others didn't like the idea of American soldiers dying for a questionable cause.

But many other Americans did support the war. They were told Saddam was a tyrannical, oppressive ruler, guilty of killing hundreds of thousands of people. They were also told Saddam had an extensive amount of chemical and biological weapons - and a plan to acquire nuclear weapons was in the works.

Saddam was an oppressive ruler. There is tangible evidence of his wrongdoing in the form of mass graves. Hundreds of Iraqis were executed simply for questioning their government.

But we still don't know if the Iraqi regime was or still is harboring weapons of mass destruction. Being one of the main reasons American and British troops were sent to Iraq, some never making it home, it would be nice to know if Bush and his staff were exaggerating the truth.

Our government has also made claims that North Korea, another member of Bush's "Axis of Evil", have restarted a nuclear weapons program and might already have some that could threaten national security. Though the eccentric communist government of North Korea has made similar claims, we wonder if the same intelligence used to determine the existence of stockpiles of Iraqi weapons was used in North Korea and what we are currently engaging in there.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has said there is "no doubt whatsoever" Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. If so, he should have no trouble whatsoever turning them up.

But while the American people can't do much in the way of investigating intelligence, Congress can.

According to a report in The New York Times on Saturday, many Democrats, including Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, are starting to challenge the Bush administration, and they should.

Congress is the voice of the American public, and the American public deserves to know if the reason we went to war was simply a theory.

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