This post is completely neutral. An inquiring mind just wants to know:
President Bush keeps claiming about how Iraq must disarm or he will attack…
I am just wondering- Have the inspectors found anything besides those empty warheads? What is he basing his claim that they have WMD on?
I just don’t understand what he’s so angry about. That’s why I would like you guys to help.
Boy. We’ve had lots of these threads, and it’s late. I’m going for just one quick point here.
First, listening to Hans Blix, head inspector for UNMOVIC, one hears comments indicating that 1) Iraq’s weapons declaration was something less than full and complete and 2) that Iraq’s cooperation with inspectors has been less than acceptable. These were two of the requirements of UNSCR 1441. The British Ambassador to the U.N., Sir Jeremy Greenstock (if memory serves me correctly) in an appearance on Charlie Rose last week referred to a significant number of items known to exist in Iraq prior to the Gulf War which he indicated had yet to be declared in any of Iraq’s weapons declarations to date. He named a quantity of some 40,000+ missiles and multiple types of chemical weapons, and no, unfortunately I didn’t take notes.
Now, the thing I think is sticking in W’s craw is that the inspections are viewed, incorrectly, by France, Russia, Germany and China in particular, as being effective. It’s all about the meaning of the word, dontcha know. Inspectors inspect. That’s the job. Country A shows inspectors where the proscribed items are, inspectors inspect and verify destruction or removal. That’s supposed to be the way it works. Unfortunately, in Iraq what we have the inspectors doing is a mindless game of hide and seek. If we (being the U.S. and U.K.) know that the Iraqi’s haven’t declared their weapons in totality, then the inspectors are forced to seek while the Iraqi’s continue to hide. The onus is supposed to be on Saddam to prove he has disarmed, not on the inspectors to prove he hasn’t. Thus, by raising the question you posed, whether the inspectors have found anything besides the chemical warheads, you too have turned the process into the direct opposite of its intent.
And after all, how long must this go on? Does Saddam get one more last chance? Or does he get another UNSCR that says this time is his final, last chance? Or yet another UNSCR that insists that this time it’s fershur his very, very, for real, ultimate, we-mean-it-now, don’t-you-make-us-mad really last chance?
Do you have power point? I’ve got a good ppt show that may shed some light on things for you. I’ll send it your way if you want.
Of to Great Debates.
I think you have made some great points NaSultainne. I’ve been trying to figure out a concise way of describing the whole UN inspection clusterf**k, and you have helped me tremdously.
flyboy88 can you attach your file to some link?
Just one itty bitty little point to balance: the UN Resolutions are just that: UN resolutions. The UN has the authority and the responsiblility to enforce or choose not to enforce such resolutions. It is not the privilege of the US to decide which resolutions are important, and demand military response, and which are not.