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Once upon a time a bored young shepherd boy decided to play a trick on his little village. He cried, “Wolf! wolf!” and the people of the town rushed to his side, ready to fight off the danger. But there was no wolf to be found. A little upset at the boy’s prank, the townspeople went back to their lives. A few days later the town once again heard cries of “Wolf!” and once more rushed to the boy’s side. Again, no wolf. Furious at his deception, the people left, swearing to never come back. A few days later that same boy was tending his flock when he saw an enormous wolf. He shouted for help at the top of his lungs, but to no avail. No one came. His lies had lost him his credibility, which in turn cost him the support of his friends when he needed them most.

Well, the same thing is happening, only on a much larger and much more serious scale. The search to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has been going on for months, both before and after the war, but not a single weapon has been found.

The Bush administration justified this recent war to our allies in the name of “disarming a tyrant,” by promising to destroy the chemical and biological weapons Bush said Saddam Hussein had. Now, accusations have arisen that the United States did in fact “cry wolf” – that the United States cited a non-existent danger in an effort to raise international and domestic support for an unpopular war. If the United States proves unable to find WMD, or at least strong evidence of a WMD program, the United States could face a severe loss of credibility in the international community, leading to fewer allies when they are needed most.

It’s not that WMD haven’t been found because the inspectors haven’t been looking hard enough. In fact, thousands of qualified people have been combing the sandy deserts of Iraq and peeping under every pebble in hopes of finding scud missiles, anthrax powder or any number of banned weapons. The number of U.S. inspectors has now reached 1,500, more than five times the number that Hans Blix’s U.N. inspection team had.

So, it’s not that there is a lack of effort put into the search. Where are the weapons then?

For a moment, let’s give the Bush administration the benefit of the doubt and assume that Hussein did have the 500 tons of mustard gas and nerve gas; 25,000 liters of anthrax; 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin and the 29,984 prohibited munitions capable of delivering chemical agents it said he had.

For starters, Iraq is a large country, and it could be that the inspectors haven’t looked in the right places yet. Furthermore, it’s well known that Hussein is a master of deception and could have perfected ways of hiding these weapons.

Or, perhaps (as President Bush himself suggested) Iraqi leaders destroyed these weapons en masse shortly before the invasion began.

All three of these possibilities are probable reasons as to why U.S. inspectors have been coming up empty handed.

But what happens if it turns out Iraq did not in fact have weapons of mass destruction – that the Bush administration played upon people’s fears in an effort to jump-start the war.

Then, the United States could face the biggest challenge to its credibility that it’s ever seen. As David Albright, former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, said, “If no WMD are found, then the fundamental justification for this war is not there, and there’s going to have to be some real answers why we went to war and how did the U.S. make such a huge mistake about the WMD programs in Iraq.”

It’s well known that France, Germany and Russia were not supportive of the United States’ desire for military action in Iraq. The war already caused traditional alliances to buckle, if not break entirely. Imagine the international consequences if it turns out that there really are no WMD in Iraq and that the United States was lying to the world.

The administration promised that Hussein’s Iraq was busy brewing deadly chemical and biological weapons and staked the lives of thousands of innocent U.S. and Iraqi citizens on this promise. If credible evidence of WMD fails to arise, serious damage will have been done to United States’ credibility.

Like the boy who cried wolf one too many times, the Bush administration’s crying “WMD!” could seriously stunt the backing our allies give us, thus severely hurting the very real and ongoing war against terror. Let’s just hope the inspectors find something – and soon.