Here is a Newsweek cover story that goes into more depth with regard to the feelings in the halls of diplomacy, or, How Colin Powell Became a Hawk.
Interesting essay. Thanks for posting it. The inside information about Powell suggests that his folk are the source.
I found this paragraph telling:
Yet Force on Mind is also placing unbearable pressure on America’s allies. Many Security Council members—especially some Europeans, Russia and China—say they think Bush really wanted to go to war all along. Even the president’s American critics say the case for immediate war has not been clearly made. “Initially, there was at least an implication that [Iraq] was linked to terrorism,” says retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni. “When that link couldn’t be made, it was possession of weapons of mass destruction. When that case couldn’t be made, it was lack of cooperation. Right now, it’s down to ‘You won’t let us talk to your scientists’ as the reasons for going to war. And ‘We know what the Iraqis have, but we can’t tell you.’ I just think it’s too confusing.” When an official of the U.N. nuclear agency said last week that Saddam would get a B for his cooperation thus far, the administration was furious. Condi Rice called agency head Mohamed El Baradei, NEWSWEEK has learned, and told him that his job was to report the facts—the United Nations would judge compliance.
Looks like everyone is feeling pressure, Blair particularly. Zinni's line is about where I am at the moment; the item which makes the invasion seem more about something other than the public reasons.
Finally, I assume that the Rice line was not true. I don't doubt the phone call; I doubt the "your job is . . ." stuff. That would be something for his superiors to say and my guess is they did not. Thus, his statement. |
