Where’s the outrage?

The Guardian reports: “UK intelligence chiefs have admitted for the first time that claims they made about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction were wrong and have not been substantiated. The admission is revealed in the annual report of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee which also sharply criticises the lack of communication between ministers and the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.”

This story has received no media coverage in Australia (though I’m happy to be corrected.) It’s scandalous that none of the major broadsheets, from the Sydney Morning Herald to Murdoch’s Australian, deem this important enough to even warrant a paragraph, let alone a front page. Before the war, journalists were constantly channelling government propaganda on WMDs. As late as February this year, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was still talking up Saddam’s WMDs. Take this money quote:

“He’s [Saddam] the only leader in history who has used chemical weapons or any other sort of weapons of mass destruction against his own people.”

Clearly the use of Agent Orange by the Americans in Vietnam was, as Ronald Reagan once said, “a noble cause.” Saddam’s use of chemical weapons, sanctioned and supported by the West, was outrageous. But it’s equally important to recognise Western responsibility for suffering in foreign lands.