Now They Know What We Know
President Bush has been meticulous in building the case for disarming Iraq according to the UN mandate. He went to the American people and received their support; he went to the House and the Senate and received their support in the form of a resolution; he went to the UN and received its support in the form of UN Resolution 1441. Today, he permitted US intelligence to be compromised in the name of a “coalition” against Iraq, despite the fact that he has already formed a coalition that spans Europe, the Pacific and the Middle East. We hope it was worth it.
President Bush has been meticulous in building the case for disarming Iraq according to the UN mandate. He went to the American people and received their support; he went to the House and the Senate and received their support in the form of a resolution; he went to the UN and received its support in the form of UN Resolution 1441. Today, he permitted US intelligence to be compromised in the name of a “coalition” against Iraq, despite the fact that he has already formed a coalition that spans Europe, the Pacific and the Middle East. We hope it was worth it.
As Secretary Powell made his presentation before the UN Security Council, the “crawl” under the picture on the cable network announced that Iraq will now permit UN inspectors to use surveillance planes, Iraqi scientists can now be interviewed without Iraqi officials present, and Iraq is now prepared for full inspections. So now Iraq is beginning to understand how much we have always known despite the best efforts of so many to conceal so much from so few. We told them because our “friends” asked us to.
Following the Secretary’s detailed and excellent report, we can find only three reasons that our “friends” would continue to oppose the disarmament of Iraq under UN auspices.
Fear of what real inspectors would uncover. Some of the most dangerous Iraqi programs (mobile biological weapons factories, for example) would be hard to find even if little UNMOVIC hadn’t been compromised by Iraqi agents, which Mr. Powell said they had been. So the fact that the small team ensures that few violations will be found is good for countries violating UN mandates by SELLING as well as by PURCHASING. Mr. Powell took the high road here. For example, describing aluminum tubes purchased by Iraq, Mr. Powell noted that the specifications were more exacting than those of the US military. We knew, he said, because we had intercepted shipments of the tubes before they reached Iraq. He pointed out that even if the tubes were not destined for Iraq’s nuclear program, they were still on the list of items banned for import by Iraq. Ever the gentleman, Mr. Powell did not name the country violating the UN weapons ban on Iraq.
Preference for short-term “stability” over medium-term upheaval. Some countries are unwilling to take action until they believe they have no choice — until they are attacked. They want a “smoking gun,” unaware as the wag said, that the gun doesn’t smoke until AFTER it is fired. Mr. Powell made a compelling case for Iraqi involvement in terrorism. He chose not to connect the dots between Iraq’s involvement with the poison Ricin and recent British arrests of terrorists with Ricin. He also chose not to mention that terrorists have been arrested in Italy, Spain, France and Germany with chemicals and explosives.
Plain old anti-Americanism; there are those who simply will not go where we lead. This is the most frustrating of all because Mr. Powell’s detailed description of intelligence in our hands compromised many sources of intelligence. He did it knowing full well that our job in Iraq may be harder because of it. This speech was unnecessary for those who already understand the risk, and unlikely to change the minds of those who don’t want to.