“strategy of impotence”
The very best speech I thought was Ms. Palacio's and
I loved Jack Straw blowing up the French ministers balloon of fantasy of diplomacy rules over force with regards to the Butcher.
ANA PALACIO, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Spain, said that on
14 February she had hoped to hear that Saddam Hussein had been unconditionally complying with inspections. However, she had not heard that. Nor had she heard that today. Today, the Council ran the risk of “not seeing the forest for the trees”. The concrete progress achieved by the inspectors and the gestures made by Saddam Hussein were distracting the international community from the objective set 12 years ago, namely, the complete disarmament of Iraq. The international community had been marking time for 12 years. There were two questions she wanted to address: “Were we discharging our responsibility as members of the Security Council” and “what message were we sending to the world?”
Twelve years later, she said, the threat remained. Saddam Hussein had still not complied with the Council’s resolutions; the scenario was the same as that in 1991; the main actor remained the same; his attitude was still a profound disregard for international law; and his strategy remained the same. How much time did it take to decide to cooperate? While many knew the answer to that question, they chose to ignore it. The Council ran the risk of becoming a media platform to showcase its differences. Saddam Hussein was achieving something dangerous by identifying the Council with the role of aggressor, while making himself out to seem like the victim, and shifting the burden of proof to the Council’s shoulders. “How did we arrive at that situation?”
Turning to the second question –- the message to be sent by the Council –- she said that only maximum pressure or a credible threat of force had any effect on the Iraqi regime. That was the underlying element of resolution 1441 and the second draft resolution introduced by the United States, United Kingdom and Spain. The weapons did exist. The Council should send the message that it would not tolerate any more of Saddam’s games. The Council had to give a clear message and stop playing hostage to those seeking to attain their own ends.
The complete disarmament of Iraq was not a matter of more inspectors or more time, she stated. That, in the words of a French thinker, was a “strategy of impotence”. Up to now, Iraq had given no signs that it was willing to disarm. |
