As I was walking along today, I thought about a principle I learned in my surgery rotation as a medical student. For people who have signs and symptoms consistent with an acute appendicitis the appropriate next step is to take them to surgery for an appendectomy. It was taught and expected that there will be a certain number of people who go to surgery who end up not having an appendicitis. In fact, the expectation was that a surgeon should have around 5% of the cases taken for an appendectomy to be normal, or else his index of suspicion was not high enough. The principle is that it is better to take out a normal appendix, than to wait until an inflamed one ruptures and increases the risk of infection and death.

This same principle applies to national security. I have heard many complain that no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq so we are not justified to be here and for that reason we should pull out and that Bush should be impeached for lying to the Congress and the American people. Let me set the record straight with completely de-classified information that anyone could find, if they looked hard enough (a challenge to reporters).

There have been over 500 weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq since we invaded, and this is just the unclassified information. The weapons contained at least two different types of chemicals, both nerve and blister agents. The criticism and explanation why this information does not get bigger press is that these were old weapons and not evidence of a new weapons program; however, that still does not negate the fact that Sadaam was in possession of WMDs and could have used them against Iraqis or others. The second piece of information is that a gas lab was found in northern Iraq, which had new materials for making blister and nerve agents. These materials would have been obtained during the time Sadaam was saying he did not have an active chemical weapons production program. The last piece of information is that there are people who are Syrian and are testifying publicly of three places in Syria where WMDs from Iraq were hidden and are still there to this day.

We all look at our surroundings through our own biases. I look at my surrounding through the eyes of Christian and a physician. The way I view these events in Iraq which have and continue to directly affected me, my family, friends, and co-workers is that when there is a real concern the US must take action to protect its citizens. On rare occasions, the US has over reached, which verifies that we have a high index of suspicion; however, we are usually late when the pus has already started leaking into a country. There are numerous countries around the world that we have not invaded, because they posed little or no risk to the US or our allies interests. Before invading Iraq, this country showed many signs and symptoms of a weapons program that could have had a devastating effect on the world. Like the surgeon, the US decided to act and operate. I do not have the entire operative report but what I have found is that during the first part of the operation, there was “old pus found in the belly”. If old pus is left in the belly of a human, it will fester and eventually come to light when the patient is much more sick and much harder to treat. The treatment for pus in the belly is drainage of the pus and to make sure there isn’t any more pus around. Additionally, one must look for where the pus was coming from and stop its production. We are still in the midst of the operation and we are still looking for more pus and different types of pus.

Where this illustration breaks down is, when a doctor is operating on a patient the concerned friends and family are in the waiting room thinking and praying for the patient and the doctor. I have been in operations where the families patiently waited most of the day for news of the results of the operation. In this conflict the neighbors are adding pus to the already sickened body and some of the so called friends and families of the doctor are ridiculing the result before the operation is complete having grown wearing of waiting.

My recommendation as a physician is to trust those who are in the operating room and see first hand how the operation is preceding rather than those who are in the waiting room and want to go home regardless of whether the patients lives or dies.

Solis Deo Gloria

More thoughts to come