Yet Another Late Evening News Release!

April 14, 2006

Dear President Bush,

I opened my morning newspaper to read Sec. Rice’s strong position that Iran must face consequences. Condi is quoted as saying “There is no doubt that Iran continues to defy the will of the international community despite the fact that the international community very clearly said stop.”

Of course there is some debate Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear technology and how that can be implemented with appropriate assurances that nuclear weapons grade processing does not occur. This concerns a potential weapon of mass destruction.

At 10:27 pm EST another news article spoke of the destruction of existing weapons of mass destruction. It appears Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld had some crow to eat on the United States failure to meet treaty obligations regarding destruction of our chemical weapons stockpile. The article stated:

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has told congressional leaders that the U.S. will miss an extended deadline to dispose of the country's chemical weapons stockpiles. In a letter Monday to the chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Rumsfeld said he expects only two-thirds of the stockpile to be destroyed by April 2012. That date is a five-year extension from the previous deadline, set in a 1997 international treaty.

What if Saddam had said he needed another 5 years to destroy his chemical weapons stash? You might say that is not a fair analogy, as Mr. Hussein used such weapons on his own people. I would suggest the United States has a long track record of using WMD. It continues to do so today in Iraq by dropping the chemical variant of napalm and white phosphorous. Both are chemical burning agents.

We know the United Nations will take up the situation with Iran and start some escalatory disciplinary process within the month. Will it address the United States slippage on destruction of its chemical weapons stockpiles per international treaty obligations?

My guess is they will pass on that, and in doing so discredit both the U.S. and the U.N. There is an elephant stomping around in the middle of the room, and we appear to be it.

Why won’t people talk about it? Is it because they didn’t read about it? A late night news release before a holiday weekend gives the story lots of time to be buried. Most will miss data pointing to the United States’ position of “do as I say, not as I do”.