The Path to War with Iraq
As of March 17th, the US is on a path to war with Iraq to destroy its WMD and remove Saddam Hussein from power. It has been a long time in coming. It dates back to the last hours of the 1991 war against Iraq and Hussein's agreement to destroy all his WMD in exchange for a cease fire. For 7 years, UN Inspectors attempted to verify that Iraq's WMD had all been located and destroyed. In late 1998, the UN inspectors were withdraw when Hussein stopped cooperating with the inspectors. Up to this point, the UN Security Council had passed 16 resolutions against Iraq all having to do with destruction of its WMD. For 4 years, there were no UN inspectors in Iraq and the UN Security Council did nothing to enforce it 16 resolutions.
In September of 2002, George Bush went before the UN to insists that the UN back up its 16 resolutions and get Saddam Hussein to finally disarm. A 17th resolution was passed 15-0 in the UN Security Council and that resolution promised the use of force if Iraq did not immediately identify its WMD so that UN inspectors could catalog and destroy all remaining WMD. The Iraqi regime put forth a 12,000 page document that contained little new concerning WMD and implied that no WMD existed. The UN inspectors were left to re-verify what previous inspectors had cataloged and then search high and low for any hint of WMD. After 3 1/2 months, there was little to show for their efforts. A few empty WMD shells claimed to be left over from 1991 but found in a building that didn't exist until 1998 and Al Samoud 2 missiles that one can only assume Hussein assumed the inspectors would never discover that they violated the 93 mile limit. Rather than destroy them using explosives, the Iraqis chose to use bulldozers to slow the process down. The French, German and Russian governments made claims that inspections were working, but they were in fact only delaying tactics to postpone a day of reckoning fo the Iraq regime.
The UN Security Council continues to be an over hyped debating society that passes resolutions demanding one thing or another and when the parties refuse, throws up its hands and says there is nothing to be done. It avoided Kosovo when thousands of Kosovo Albanians were being killed or force to flee from the country. The UN does have its good points, but they are mostly related to its world food programs, health programs and the assigning of peace keepers comprising of member state's military. As far as world security, they've provided little in its 50+ year history. They've been more the League of Nations part II.
The coalition that was built for the 1991 conflict was considerably easier to form as Iraq had invaded Kuwait and now controlled its oil fields. Next on Saddam's list could well have been Saudi Arabia and not even France was ready to deal with Saddam when it came to oil and gas resources. With the threat of Saddam and his WMD being provided to Al Qaeda members, the case for a world threat was less easy to make. France, Germany and Russia found it easier to try and contain Saddam and hope for the best. Neither has yet suffered a 9/11 event and they and their citizens feel reasonably safe. The US, on the other hand is not willing to wait for another 9/11 event to occur on its shores and then try and track down those responsible. Too many lives are at stake for the US to sit back and wait.
To those who decry regimes change, to destroy all of Iraq's WMD and leave Saddam in power would only mean revisiting Iraq and WMD 5 years down the road. Saddam wants to be the leader of the Arab world and intends to achieve this with WMD and intimidation. To not remove him would mean continually having to find and destroy his latest stockpile and put more lives each time at risk. The cost, even if it is only 1 life, is to great to not get the job done and done for good.
03/18/03 ( 463 )
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