February 02, 2004

The Benefits of Patience

Michael Ledeen's got a great record on advocating freedom in the mideast. In NRO he writes that he personally knows of some stories about WMD movement to Iran that were never properly investigated (evidence that was refused to be seen and locations that our people refused to inspect). This is the stuff of nightmares for information ministers and press secretaries, all the foundations necessary for conspiracy theories that will last for decades.

This is just one more example of why it is necessary to have an actual report, an actual detailed accounting of what was examined, what was rejected, and why was it rejected. There may be perfectly good reasons why the evidence that Ledeen is aware of was not true. But we don't have the report. We don't have the official side to the story. All we have is an ungodly urge to rush to conclusions and start firing people.

Could we possibly take things seriously and have the patience to do things right? Are we really so short of entertainment that we need to botch investigations to give room for conspiracy theories to thrive? The chips need to fall where they may for the nation to be served well but they should at least fall first.

Posted by TMLutas at February 2, 2004 05:34 PM