UN Weapons Inspectio…

UN Weapons Inspections: Day 62: I heard a great observation on the Fox News Channel over the weekend. In typical Fox “fair and balanced” fashion, Rita Cosby had two guests on at the same time, one who believed that war should be an option and one that didn’t. The fellow who supported the Bush administration said that weapons inspections, given the anti-war crowd’s reasoning, were a catch-22. If weapons are not found, they’d say we shouldn’t go in. If weapons were found, they’d say we should continue inspections. His point was similar to Condoleezza Rice’s point last week; the method by which a country should disarm is very well established by many countries, notable those of the former Soviet Union, and Saddam Hussein is not following that pattern.

In fact, today we find out more details from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz that Hussein is sabotaging the whole effort by buying off inspectors, and otherwise getting spies into the mix that tip off the Iraqis as to what the next site to be inspected will be. Additionally, Iraq is still playing a shell game with weapons, moving them constantly so that intelligence as to where they’ve been hidden has to be incredibly current to be of any use. (The link above goes to today’s World Tribune story, but the full text of Wolfowitz’s speech, given last Thursday to the Council on Foreign Relations is here.)

Hans Blix has also been knocking the Iraqis. “Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament that was demanded of it, ” he said today. Inspectors have not been told about the fate of biological weapons (like VX nerve gas and anthras), or been allowed to use a reconnaissance plane to better hut for weapons, or talked privately with scientists.

This, then, is the way out of the catch-22. In order for the results of weapons inspections to be of any use, the process must be trustworthy. If it isn’t, due to manipulation by Hussein, that is a material breach of the UN resolution saying that inspections must be unhindered. Sabotage, shell-game strategies and stonewalling are hindrances.

The evidence continues to mount, but the anti-war crowd insists that we can’t go in because Saddam has hidden his weapons so well.

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