Editorial: More time
More time On February 5, Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the UN Security Council with evidence-some dramatic-that Iraq continues to evade the efforts of the UN's weapons inspectors. Most...
...The United States should go the extra mile, and then some, to broaden support for possible military action...
...The debate in the Security Council following Blix's second report showed that different countries are working from different assumptions about what is required of Iraq...
...Earlier testimony by the UN's chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, was equally damning...
...If Iraq complies, further pressure can be applied in the hope of further disclosures...
...Giving the inspections more time only plays into Saddam Hussein's obvious strategy of delay and avoidance...
...Disputed military action," France argues, might "exacerbate...
...Bush must put an exit strategy, not just a war strategy on the table...
...The United States, along with Britain, argues that inspections are not a game of hide-and-seek, and cannot work unless Iraq cooperates actively and fully...
...On February 14, Blix presented a second report, this one indicating progress had been made on procedural questions, noting a greater degree of Iraqi cooperation, and taking issue with parts of Powell's testimony...
...Still, the Bush administration must show patience, ratchet down its rhetorical attacks against those understandably hesitant to go to war, and continue to make its case for a second UN resolution...
...Saddam Hussein evaded disarmament in the 1990s by outfoxing and outlasting the UN coalition supporting inspections and sanctions...
...And if he refuses...
...Yet the suggestion that the United States, not Iraq, is the problem is equally risible...
...Still, there is plenty of blame on both sides of the Atlantic for this display of mutual antipathy...
...Twelve years after the Gulf War, Iraq has been given every opportunity to prove it has disarmed...
...George Bush's diplomatic blundering should not obscure how dangerous that outcome would be...
...Does France really believe Iraq has destroyed its anthrax and VX gas...
...But Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait didn't do so either...
...Rather, the invasion violated a principle of international law, threatening the stability of the international system...
...Only the threat of force enabled inspectors to return, and only the authorization of force in a second UN resolution will convince Saddam that the international community is serious...
...Still, no evidence that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction has been found, Blix emphasized...
...In addition, Powell presented satellite images purportedly showing the removal of munitions from one site shortly before the arrival of UN inspectors...
...Resolution 1441 was understood to be a "last chance...
...Enormous quantities of anthrax, chemical bombs, VX gas, and other bioagents remain unaccounted for...
...Yet the Security Council remains deeply divided, both about the purpose of inspections and what consequences should follow Iraqi noncompliance...
...If Iraq does not, the danger the regime poses will become clearer to skeptics...
...UN resolution 1441, passed unanimously by the Security Council in November, requires Iraq to make a complete accounting of its weapons of mass destruction and to cooperate fully with the inspectors...
...These disagreements and the general disarray in the Western alliance are serious, but were mollified by the European Union's February 17 declaration that "it is for the Iraq regime to end this crisis by complying with the demands of the Security Council...
...Especially alarming was the initial willingness, since rescinded, of France, Germany, and Belgium to split the NATO alliance by refusing to help Turkey prepare to defend itself in case of war...
...Information gathered from defectors and prisoners also seemed to confirm the existence of Iraqi mobile bioweapons laboratories...
...Much of the information Iraq has provided the UN about its weapons has been incomplete or bogus...
...On its face, Iraq stands in violation of 1441 and subject to the "serious consequences" stipulated by the resolution...
...France, backed by Germany and others, avoids the question of whether 1441 has been violated and argues that the inspections are working...
...With close to 200,000 American, British, and Australian troops massing on Iraq's borders, France's doubts have not gone down well in Washington...
...Certainly President George W. Bush's dubious "doctrine of preemption" has turned potential allies into suspicious critics...
...Arguably, Iraq's continued defiance of the UN presents a similar threat...
...Is it plausible that more inspectors will bring about Iraqi disarmament when eight years of inspections in the 1990s failed to...
...As popular resistance to war grows in Europe and the United States, there is little to lose, and much to gain, in giving inspectors more time...
...February 18,2003ry 18,2003...
...More inspectors and more time, it argues, will bring even better results...
...The UN's credibility, as much as that of the United States, is on the line...
...Bush has been unconvincing in arguing that Iraq presents an "imminent" threat to the United States...
...At this late hour, given Iraq's history of deception, the best hope for peace seems to be a second UN resolution that, by removing any doubt about the international community's resolve to use military force, compels Saddam to either disarm or go into exile...
...Happily, news reports suggest that the administration is determined to continue to seek UN approval over the next few weeks, working with Blix to establish a series of "benchmarks" for the Iraqi regime to meet...
...At this point, with the spectacle of a fractious Security Council, Saddam has no reason to think he can't do it again...
...More important, President Bush must stop playing just the "tough cop" and make clear what specific steps Iraq can still take to avoid war...
...Those opposed to military action in the near future have yet to answer these questions satisfactorily...
...Powell made a strong case, despite questionable efforts to link Baghdad to alleged Al Qaeda operatives involved in the assassination of an American diplomat in Jordan...
...Does it believe Saddam has given up his dream of acquiring a nuclear weapon...
...divisions that nurture terrorism...
...Most compelling in Powell's testimony were intercepts of the Iraqi military discussing the need to hide chemical weapons...
...Does it think the sort of pressure being applied to Iraq now, and which has brought forth minimal cooperation, can be sustained indefinitely...
...No one seriously believes that Iraq has disposed of all its biological and chemical weapons, yet Iraq has presented no evidence that it has any...
...Without specific evidence that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, war is not justified...
...Blix said that "Iraq has neither come forth with a full and complete declaration of its weapons of mass destruction, nor has it been cooperating immediately and unconditionally and actively...
Vol. 130 • February 2003 • No. 4
