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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (126562)	3/19/2004 8:55:20 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Canada Got it Right on Iraq by Paul Heinbecker Rarely in life is a decision so quickly and thoroughly vindicated as Canada's decision to opt out of the war in Iraq. A year later, the stated casus belli has evaporated. No weapons of mass destruction have been found, despite the best efforts of more than a thousand American weapons inspectors with free rein. No connection to al-Qaeda has been established. No persuasive argument endures about the urgency of the U.S. need to act. It is no clearer today than it was a year ago what Washington's purposes were in invading Iraq. A year ago in New York, I led a Canadian effort to find a compromise between Washington, in its determined march to war, and others -- in fact, the great majority of others -- equally determined to give the UN weapons inspectors more time to do their jobs. The substance of the compromise consisted of setting a series of tests of Iraqi co-operation, on a pass-or-fail basis, and a limited time frame within which to assess results. We knew the odds against selling the compromise were long, but we believed the consequences of a war made the effort mandatory. Many, including members of the so-called coalition of the willing, encouraged us to persevere. Most, including me, disbelieved the allegations emanating from the White House about Iraqi nuclear weapons. Few were persuaded by the "intelligence" presented to the UN Security Council and to the world by the U.S. Secretary of State and the director of the CIA. There is little doubt that it would have been in everyone's interests, especially Washington's, to have accepted the compromise. In the end, the horses would not drink. The war proceeded, with consequences that the world is still trying to calculate. The most obvious consequence is that the United States and its posse are caught in a morass. They cannot end the occupation precipitously without triggering a civil war and undoing the good they have done in removing Saddam Hussein. They cannot stay in Iraq without losing more soldiers and more money. Echoes of Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Iraqi toll also rises. As one Arab ambassador at the United Nations put it, the Americans have swallowed a razor and nothing they do now will be painless or cost-free. commondreams.org