Search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

The search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is presented through its negative result: United States forces did not find the weapons. The book gives that absence political significance, reading it as evidence against the idea that the operation belonged to a truly totalitarian power willing to manufacture proof of wrongdoing.

The Search and Its Result

The account identifies the outcome plainly: the forces searching Iraq did not find weapons of mass destruction. It supplies no operational details about where or how the search was conducted, keeping the emphasis on what the failure to find them means in the book’s argument.

The Meaning of Not Finding

The book calls the failure to find the weapons a positive sign. Its comparison is pointed: police, it observes, may plant drugs and then “discover” evidence of a crime; a truly totalitarian power, by the same logic, would have fabricated evidence rather than come up empty-handed. The search therefore serves as a contrast between an unsuccessful investigation and a system that would make its desired proof appear.