Random Thoughts From Marybeth

Proof Enough

We can't find any caches of WMDs. What does this prove?

Nothing. Lack of evidence of their existance is just that, it doesn't prove the opposite. It does not disprove that they existed at one time nor that there were plans to make them.

What evidence do we have?

Hussein used such weapons against the Kurds. He had people whose jobs were to research and develop such weapons. He failed to co-operate fully with inspectors and to comply with the resolutions that he provide proof of the destruction of weapons.

None of this proves he still had them. It implies that the weapons were there, or at least available to him...or he thought they were and made others think so too. If I decide to liberate your wallet from you and either through my words or actions imply that I have a weapon, I'm committing armed robbery. The police come along and arrest me but can't find any weapon. That doesn't prove I never had one. It doesn't really matter whether I did or not. The implication is enough.

We haven't had any more terrorist attacks in the U.S. This does not prove that Homeland Security and our war on terrorism is working. Unless you believe the multiverse theory and have a way of visiting a parallel universe where the U.S. decided to try to appease terrorists rather than fight them, you can't prove the decision to fight had any effect. Still, it does imply that our efforts are successful.

We don't have a control group universe to compare ours with so our actions can't be proven to be the right ones. Lack of evidence to the contrary isn't proof that our actions were the wrong ones. All we have are implications that this administration is on the right course to make us (and the world) safer.

Sometimes that is enough.