Just out of curiosity, how much work would you expect to complete to look for evidence of WMD (or lack thereof)? I’m sure it’d take more than just a couple of quick phone calls to the CIA, or even a trip to the region itself...
I wouldn’t know, I don’t know the space of evidence in the first place. I guess in hindsight, that question is a little silly, since you can’t know until you know.
What I really wanted to capture was the idea that looking for such evidence seems highly impractical for the average person writing a simple blog. The logistics of going out and finding such evidence doesn’t seem trivial. Unless I’m not particularly creative, I’d at least start by integrating into the military operation there, which can range anywhere from active service to doing some civilian work contract there. Even then, I’d have to know the right people with the right informants, evidence of WMD would likely be sensitive information and even more like be kept under wraps for this reason.
looking for such evidence seems highly impractical for the average person writing a simple blog
Right. Which implies that the average person shouldn’t have a strong opinion on the topic.
Unless she can analyze the publicly-available contradictory information and come to a conclusion (which still shouldn’t be particularly strong because it’s all based on hearsay, essentially).
Just out of curiosity, how much work would you expect to complete to look for evidence of WMD (or lack thereof)? I’m sure it’d take more than just a couple of quick phone calls to the CIA, or even a trip to the region itself...
How much work for whom to achieve what degree of confidence?
I wouldn’t know, I don’t know the space of evidence in the first place. I guess in hindsight, that question is a little silly, since you can’t know until you know.
What I really wanted to capture was the idea that looking for such evidence seems highly impractical for the average person writing a simple blog. The logistics of going out and finding such evidence doesn’t seem trivial. Unless I’m not particularly creative, I’d at least start by integrating into the military operation there, which can range anywhere from active service to doing some civilian work contract there. Even then, I’d have to know the right people with the right informants, evidence of WMD would likely be sensitive information and even more like be kept under wraps for this reason.
Right. Which implies that the average person shouldn’t have a strong opinion on the topic.
Unless she can analyze the publicly-available contradictory information and come to a conclusion (which still shouldn’t be particularly strong because it’s all based on hearsay, essentially).