Many people are aware of Egypt's Valley of the Kings. That's the location where the ancient Egyptians buried their leaders after the pyramids became too obvious a target for graverobbers.
This confined geographical area had 62 known tombs, the most recently discovered being that of Tutankhamun, which was discovered in 1922. That tomb unveiled the spectacular sarcophogai, gold items, and a plethora of details about the life and times of ancient Egyptians.
Egyptologists believed that there were no more tombs to be uncovered. And for 84 years, they would be right. On February 6, 2006, a new tomb was discovered, much to the surprise of Egyptologists, archeologists, and casual observers.
This is a valley that has been picked over by scientists for decades, and no one managed to find a new tomb in 84 years.
So why am I writing about the Valley of the Kings? Simple. Because learned individuals thought that there wasn't anything left to find and that everywhere had been searched. And they were proven wrong.
Where else in the world has the claim been made that a search has been ongoing for a long period of time and no items of worth had been found.
Iraq.
And those pesky WMD.
Anyone want to compare the size of Iraq to the Valley of the Kings? Anyone? Bueller? Didn't think so. Scientists picked over the Valley for 83 years since the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, and didn't find anything new - it was only in the 84th year that scientists made the new discovery. Meanwhile, the search for WMD has been called off after three years, despite the fact that all signs pointed to the fact that Iraq was looking to obtain WMD, maintained the technical and intellectual know-how to restart the WMD programs, and spent years playing and refining the cheat and retreat strategy to buy more time.
While it is certainly possible that Iraq destroyed all its WMD stockpiles, to make claims of certainty about that are ill-founded.
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