We had the votes of most of the rotating members. And yes, France was against, but originally said it would not block a vote, until it became afraid we would win.
There was no reason to consider any conclusion of the inspectors definitive, as was demonstrated by the continued R&D and harboring of bacterial strains that Kay discovered. Additionally, in the current environment, stockpiles were the least of our worries. Manufacturing enough ricin to contaminate a city would have been a piece of cake. The black bag operation was our worry. There was no way the inspection regime could satisfy our concerns, in fact. Fortunately, Saddam behaved true to form, and vacillated between resistance and cooperation.
Iraq is not just any old laboratory site, but had a brutal anti- Western regime with aspiration to regional hegemony and, eventually, Arab domination of the world. Crazy as the latter might be, in pursuit of it, a lot of damage could be done.
I will see what I can get you that you might accept on Al- Qaida, at my leisure.
Yes, NATO was involved, but the UN wasn't. Does NATO have the authority to call for intervention, baring an attack on a member state? Not according to international law. |
