U.S. Set to Demand That Allies Agree Iraq Is Defying U.N. nytimes.com
This article is worth a look, it has a boatload of sidebar links too
Bush administration officials said today that next week they would confront France, Germany and other skeptics of military action against Iraq by demanding that they agree publicly that Iraq had defied the United Nations Security Council.
The officials, expressing exasperation with the refusal of longtime allies to back the United States, said they were vigorously debating whether to seek a second United Nations resolution authorizing force against Iraq. At the least, they said, they will insist that the nations opposed to the American position acknowledge that Iraq has not complied with resolutions on its weapons of mass destruction. . . .
Administration officials said their strategy was based on the belief that there might never be a "smoking gun" proving Iraq's possession of illegal weapons. Accordingly, they acknowledged that the case must be made in a negative fashion: that Iraq has failed to disprove the contentions of the United States and others about its weapons of mass destruction. The administration asserts, without offering evidence, that Iraq has thwarted inspectors by hiding the weapons.
Shoot, I coulda sworn Andy Card promised something soon on the WMD front recently. Has a void been discovered in the war marketing plan?
Edit: found the Card story, #reply-18450652
White House promises 'smoking gun intelligence' opinion.telegraph.co.uk.
White House officials have reassured Republicans by signalling that America and Britain are prepared to release powerful intelligence evidence to cement the case for war against Iraq.
Andy Card, the White House chief of staff, and Karl Rove, President George W Bush's chief political strategist, have each indicated privately that the administration has proof that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction. |
