Posted by Dan Ewert : 2/05/2003 10:03:00 PM (Archive Link)
Some reactions concerning Colin Powell’s briefing to the UN Security Council… I think it’s now more obvious than ever that Iraq poses a massive threat to the world community. What I find astounding is the reactions of other countries. For over an hour, Powell factually demonstrated how Saddam Hussein has flouted and is flouting every UN resolution put against, how it is actively concealing its weapons programs, how the inspectors are being hoodwinked, and how it is linked to Al Qaeda. Then countries such as France get the podium and say we should give the inspectors more time to find things, we should strengthen the inspection force and we should consider passing new resolutions. It’s really quite embarrassing. The UN is actively turning itself into the League of Nations through its absolute passiveness; by its utter unwillingness to put its money where its mouth is. When Hussein has openly mocked the UN for 12 years with no real consequences, what reason does he have to believe the UN will ever follow through its constant threats? It’s as if a murderer on parole commits another murder and the parole officer sternly warns him not to do it again or he’ll go back to prison… and then this scene repeats itself multiple times. Why should the murderer stop killing?

Powell was right when he said the inspectors are not detectives. They are not meant to hunt around the country trying to find Iraq’s dirty secrets. They are supposed to verify Iraq’s destruction of its WMD and the associated programs and Iraq is supposed to assist the inspectors in this endeavor and prove that it has been accomplished. By all reports, though, and by everyone’s admittance, Iraq is not doing that. Hans Blix himself said that Iraq’s non-cooperativeness and its deception is glaring. Security Council resolution 1441 starts with the precept that Iraq currently exists in material breach of previous demands and resolutions… it assumes guilt until Iraq can prove its innocence. However, the attitude of the UN is the other way around. Everybody wants to say Hussein is innocent until the inspectors come across a cache of prohibited weapons. They don’t even abide by their own resolutions.

As far as the effectiveness of the inspectors goes, I think the nature of its weapons program is most telling. After the Gulf War, Iraq insisted it had no biological or chemical weapons programs. It said this for almost five years and the inspectors never found evidence of either. In fact, the inspectors were prepared to declare Iraq in compliance with disarmament resolutions. Then Saddam’s son-in-law defected and gave us all sorts of interesting intelligence that led to the discovery of very developed biological and chemical weapons programs. For almost five years, the inspectors knew nothing about this until an Iraqi with high-level knowledge told us. Hussein and his forces are experts, absolute professionals, at concealing material and information. To put faith in the inspectors is absurd.

Something in the responses that I believe is telling is that nobody is really rebutting the connections between Iraq and Al Qaeda. They’re concentrating only on the weapons issues. I guess they don’t have anything to say against this rather potent justification for action.