And what I argued at the time was that the US should give the UN inspections teams time to do their work
This was and is such blatant excuse-making. Even with a large American army on his doorstep, Saddam was not cooperating with the inspectors. Oh, he told the scientists to open the lab doors, but they did not dare to talk, and the inspectors were not allowed to take any of them out of the country. Reasonable questions like, "So, what happened to the 4 tons of VX that you admitted making in the 1990s (after you stopped lying about it)? You say it all vanished, where did it go?" were never answered.
What shred of evidence is there to think that another 3 months, 6 months, a year, of this useless runaround would have discovered any facts or changed any minds?
But the extra time would have destroyed the momentum behind the American threats, as the American army twiddled its thumbs in Kuwait, and it would have emboldened Saddam's friends in the UN to say ever more loudly, "See? Inspections worked! He's disarmed! No War Needed! No Sanctions Needed! All Over!"
So - no war, American climbdown, Saddam triumphant, the Great Arab Survivor. And boy, the French and Russians would have been richly rewarded. Let no one say that Saddam did not know how to reward his friends.
Not coincidentally, those who pressed for endless inspections were always dead-set against the war at any cost - but seemed quite flexible about the notions of Saddam's continued rule in Iraq and the lifting of sanctions upon him. |
