Springtime for Saddam
But there is no evidence and no reason to believe that another four months would accomplish anything. The two real reasons for more inspections: the hope that the United States will lose its resolve and the desire to make invasion difficult by pushing it back to the hot summer months.
There is no longer any point for the United States to play the U.N. game of delay and obstruction, or to pretend that it will place its safety in the hands of the Security Council. Bringing the United Nations along would have been useful. But the notion that the U.N.'s "moral" approval was somehow necessary is ludicrous, particularly since U.N. morality includes turning over its human-rights committee to Libya and repeatedly branding as racist the only Middle East democracy, Israel.
President Clinton got it right, verbally at least, in 1998. He said then that Iraq was "a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists, drug traffickers, or organized criminals." In urging strong action on Iraq, the Washington Post referred to Clinton's words as "perceptive but ultimately empty" because they led to no meaningful action. In the post-9/11 world, refusing to act is far more dangerous. Saddam has the ability and the hostility to churn out weapons for those who wish to inflict grave damage on the United States. It's time to do something about it.
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