In response to my posting about Salam Pax, various people have pointed out implausibilities in the story, not to mention the fact that it’s fourth-hand news at best by the time I reported it. It struck me that this is becoming a war made up almost entirely of mysterious absences. In some ways Bin Laden set the pattern, but it has been amplified in the war on Iraq. There’s Saddam himself (dead, alive and in command, or already on the run?), the welcoming crowds of liberated Iraqis (hostile nationalists or still scared of Saddam’s secret police ?), the Republican Guard (demolished or run away to fight another day ?).

Most of all, there are the Weapons of Mass Destruction. As I pointed out before the shooting started, this was an issue which, for all practical purposes would be resolved on the first day. If Saddam had weapons and was not amenable to containment, the militarily effective time to use them was while US forces were still concentrated in Kuwait. When this didn’t happen, it was widely reported that Saddam’s weapons were concentrated in a ‘Red Zone’ and that Republican Guard units had orders to use them when Coalition troops entered the zone. Clearly if this had been true, weapons would have been used or found by now. Now perhaps, they are being stored for a final siege of Baghdad.

Some on the Coalition side are preparing a backup case, in which thecasus belli will remain intact indefinitely, even if no weapons are found. According to this story, it may take as much as eight months to manufacture find the evidence. (link via Tim Dunlop).

As with so many others, I find this war confusing as well as deeply depressing. I don’t know what to hope for now except that the people of Iraq will soon enjoy the peace Salam Pax took for his name and that he (?) will be among those who survive to enjoy it.

Update Jim Henley reports that Al Jazeera’s English-language site is up here, and there is no mention of salam. So I guess something got confused along the way as happens with rumours of war. I hope so, anyway.