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Wow this is a shame.This week's news that the Pentagon has officially ended its search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was the quiet denouement to one of the most contentious issues in our nation's recent history.
While the beginning of the hunt for Saddam Hussein's rumored chemical, biological and nuclear weapons came in like a lion, it went out like a lamb.
The final chapter of a story that has dominated American newspapers' front pages for more than two years was published deep inside them. The Virginian-Pilot ran the news on Page A6, along with several routine stories and a gutter cleaning ad.
Most other papers did the same. A few, such as The Washington Post, posted the story on its front page, but tucked it into an unobtrusive, below-the-fold corner.
The CIA's head weapons inspector is back home. President Bush's Iraq Survey Group has decided to call it a day.
And America is left with a seemingly endless war in Iraq, but without a rationale for it.
A senior intelligence official told The Washington Post that chief weapons hunter Charles Duelfer's interim report to Congress, which contradicted nearly every prewar claim of the Bush administration, will stand as the group's final conclusion.
While the official end to our hunt for weapons is a sad, significant milestone, almost more noteworthy is our - Americans' and the media's - muted reaction to that news.
The story's placement in the folds of the paper reflects its place in our thoughts. We've made note of it, but parked it in an out-of-the-way corner where it won't demand or command our attention.
It's a national humiliation akin to a personal one: It's too painful to dwell on. Dead U.S. soldiers, dead Iraqi civilians, a war with no end in sight - it makes us cringe. So, we expel it from our minds, if not our lives, bury it and move on.
We're in Iraq now, we tell ourselves. We have to make it work.
But while we can hide this story in our newspapers and in the backs of our minds, the consequences of our failure to find WMD will haunt us, one way or another, for decades to come.
Wow that is a powerful quote!While the beginning of the hunt for Saddam Hussein's rumored chemical, biological and nuclear weapons came in like a lion, it went out like a lamb.
