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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E. T. who wrote (68703)	3/14/2003 5:20:33 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Thanks for bringing the interview to my attention. Blix comes across as surprisingly candid and honest. I think what he means is that there will not be another world war or even anything like it. I think this is the passage you are refering to: ...world conflicts I do not believe will happen any longer. But the environment, that is a creeping danger. I'm more worried about global warming... BTW, I once pointed out that we made a big mistake by unilaterally breaking treaties. It was taken as a reference to Iraq situation, but I was refering to Kyoto. I don't think most people realize what a negative impact that left on the rest of the world. I am glad Blix brought it up. Here are some other paragraphs that I thought were worth noting. ST Blix: Everybody has tried to get mileage out of us and what we say. But I'm the servant of the Security Council. I'm not the servant of any individual member, whether it's the United States, or Russia, or anyone. We are in nobody's pocket and we are not supposed to be. I think that we have to do our job well, investigate thoroughly and then describe very honestly what we see to the Security Council. And some of the things might please people there and other things may not please the people. It is true that the report shows that the Iraqis over the years have hidden a lot of stuff that they have not truthfully reported on numbers of this one thing or another, but it's also true that the report nowhere says or maintains that there remain weapons of mass destruction. We cannot exclude it in a good many cases, but that's not the same thing as saying they are there. Norris: You mentioned "months" as a general time frame, and I wonder what it is that tells you that that is a reasonable amount of time necessary for inspections. Blix: I'm not saying you could do it within months unless Iraq cooperates, but if the Iraqis make the decision that they will explain everything that they can, then one might be able to see that they are sincere. I would say they've been frantic in bringing us to curious things, but we have to soberly examine the evidence that comes from them. We also have to soberly examine evidence that comes from other governments as well. They have been saying for a long time that Iraq made an effort to import active uranium, and my colleague demonstrated the other day that they came to the conclusion that it was a fake document that everybody is relying upon. So I don't think it's our job to take evidence for granted, anywhere. We have to look at it critically, all of it. Norris: If months would be reasonable if Iraq were proactive and cooperative, when you hear this new resolution that's on the table talking about a deadline of a few days from now or a week or 10 days more, is that, from the inspectors' point of view, a reasonable request? Blix: No. No. No. You can't do it within that time, no. I think that there are different factors that drive such an impatience and there wasn't that impatience until the end of January, approximately. One is that they feel, well, they've had 12 years in the first place, and in the second place, they've had from November, so it's enough to conclude that there's no chance. But there are other factors like the military buildup. You have 200,000 people sitting in the desert and you have to think about their morale and this is a momentum in itself. There's also the weather. They also say if you wait much longer it will be a period that will be difficult to fight. And lastly, there's maybe the opinion poll. If public opinion still endorses military action that's one thing, but if they wait maybe it will not. So it's not only impatience, but there are several other factors. . Blix: Yes, I think Annan is absolutely right in this, as in most other things. The U.N. is much more than the case of Iraq. International cooperation, multilateralism is indispensable. The world has gotten so interwoven. We have to use it. Even on television, the wavelengths that you use, they have to be distributed between countries. You fly across the Atlantic, and you can't do that without international agreements. Every little part of our lives is dependent upon multilateral decisions. Of course war and peace are the most important ones. And the U.N. does not have a perfect collective security system, so it's hard to get an effectively working organization. But I would say if the Security Council is only relevant if it agrees with the United States, then we have come a long way in a direction that I do not like very much. . . [Blix] At the same time, though, one must not disregard and forget the things that are breeding these terrorist movements. Why do they become terrorists? Why do they become so desperate they are willing to blow up airplanes or buildings? Therefore we have to look at the social problems as well. Norris: Why do you think there's such a reticence on the part of governments to deal with the "whys" of terrorism and instead simply go after the elimination of these terrorists in whatever ways they can? Blix: Because the root causes are even more difficult to tackle then the symptoms of it. To wield the big stick and strike here and there and have big surveillance of telephones or whatnot, that can be done, but to get at the social conditions — better democracy, more education in the Middle East, giving the hope for the many youngsters in that part of the world — now that's harder. Look at the Palestinians with the huge, huge percentage of unemployed. What does that breed? Anyone who's unemployed in the world, you feel there's no meaning and there's a risk that you drift over to something desperate. Yes, we have to tackle the social problems as well.