Hi all; I had to laugh at this Time article. It now seems that the War Party is deeply afraid that Saddam is actually going to disarm, LOL:
What If Iraq Cooperates?
Tony Karon, Time.com, November 7, 2002
...
Giving Saddam one final chance to disarm was precisely the objective of those who most wanted to avoid war. If Saddam complies, Washington's primary casus belli is neutralized. If he refuses, even the allies most squeamish about being associated with a U.S.-led invasion will be able to show that they did everything possible to avoid a war, and that it was Saddam, rather than Washington, that chose to settle matters on the battlefield.
But the UN resolution — and the strong mandate President Bush received at the polls on Tuesday — reopens the question of the Administration's fundamental goal in Iraq. For the hawks led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the objective is to get rid of Saddam's regime, and reviving the UN arms inspection regime had been viewed at best as an inadequate guarantee of disarmament, and at worst a dangerous distraction from the task at hand. But they were convinced to take the matter back to the UN as a means of securing international support and legitimacy for a military campaign. Based on the premise that Saddam would never voluntarily relinquish his weapons of mass destruction, the assumption was that a new inspection ultimatum would create a trigger mechanism for an internationally sanctioned war, on terms that would satisfy nervous Europeans, Arabs and even Americans.
The extent to which he's prepared to allow unfettered inspection and disarmament remains to be seen. It will soon be tested by the return of the inspectors, and Washington will be hoping to point them to sensitive weapons sites from the get-go. If Saddam stonewalls at the palace gates, the next steps are clear — the Security Council reconvenes, but President Bush quickly orders his military to launch Operation Regime Change. Less clear is what happens if the Iraqis comply with the UN resolution and string the inspection process along by avoiding any actions that could be construed as obstruction. Because that won't signal that the regime has changed its ways; it will simply be the same old Saddam Hussein doing what he knows he has to do in order to stay in power.
time.com
-- Carl
P.S. I love this sentence: "Less clear is what happens if the Iraqis comply with the UN resolution and string the inspection process along by avoiding any actions that could be construed as obstruction." If the Iraqis "avoid any action that could be construed as obstruction", then why would the author call that "stringing the inspection process along"? LOL!!! |
