UN Inspectors: Iraq neglecting promises.

[OmniDude]

Sorry, Dino, I edited the the post, so now outsiders will be completely confused.

I know, don't edit. Point taken. I'll never edit again. And sorry again

[PLATO]

Violation of 1441 has occured. The question is: Will the security council act or become irrelevant? The time for debate was BEFORE the resolution. The UN must act now or lose all credibility.

This article simply bears out what has been happening for the last 12 years. These exact tactics are what CAUSED 1441 to be implemented. Now that it has, the world should respond.

To allow this to continue will make the UN nothing more than a platform to voice views. It will encourage competeing power blocs to emerge, and will generally worsen the entire worlds ability to act with any unity.

Message to France: YOU VOTED FOR 1441!!! Remember?????????

[Boris Godunov]

Further evidence Hussein isn't the cunning genious some people make him out to be. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see that his snotty, gloating reaction to the protests is just going to create further antipathy and probably dull some of the enthusiasm of those against the war.

To then go and start resisting out of an imagined mandate for non-compliance really makes him look stupid.

[uh Clem]

Some more comments from UN inspectors:

Inspectors Call U.S. Tips 'Garbage'

[OmniDude]

Well, he's playing for a different audience than us westerners.
Take into consideration the general sentiment towards Bush in the Middle-East and the quite different media picture painted there and he's posing himself to be the greatest martyr in contemporary history.
I'm not saying I like what he do, I most certainly do not, but given who he is - a man who probably knows his past look better than his future and has a compulsary need for admiration - I'd say it's not as stupid as it may seem, just hard to grasp for those of us who tend to put survival above anything else (no offense intended)

[chequita guevara]

I don't know why Hussein thinks the protests will save him. Bush has no intention of not going forward. WoMD are just an excuse. Iraq is the test case for Wolfowitz's new doctrine of preemptive strikes. If we can get away with it, then in the future, anyone who might become a threat to the US is in danger. Furthermore, the war will seriously disrupt European unity, which the US would be very happy to see. No sense letting a new superpower arise.

[Sava]

Che...

good post Oerdin

[DuncanK]

Saddam is just trying to stall. His only hope is that the world stands up against the US and threaten some kind of consequences for this. It's not going to happen.

[Gatekeeper]

It's only natural that Saddam Hussein would feel emboldened by the recent anti-war activities across the planet. He doesn't seem to realize that most of the anti-war folks are protesting the coming war, not necessarily marching because they *like* Saddam and want him to remain in power.

Gatekeeper

[MarkG]

President Saddam Hussein's government, apparently emboldened by antiwar sentiment at the U.N. Security Council and in worldwide street protests, has not followed through on its promises of increased cooperation with U.N. arms inspectors, according to inspectors in Iraq.

unnamed inspectors? right.....

[Dinner]

This seems to be the law of unintended consequences. The protesters didn't want to help Saddam but by default Saddam is the one to gain by their actions. The same sort of situation existed to the Vietnam War because every time the North Vietnamese would think about seeking an armistice (like when Nixon started unrestricted bombing of the north) there would be a large anti-war protest and the north would decide to hang in there a little longer.

[Sandman]

Why on earth are U2 flights necessary? They already have spy satellite footage.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Oerdin
The same sort of situation existed to the Vietnam War because every time the North Vietnamese would think about seeking an armistice (like when Nixon started unrestricted bombing of the north) there would be a large anti-war protest and the north would decide to hang in there a little longer.

That's an interesting way of putting it, since it was South Vietnam that was holding back. In fact, they were told in 1968 that if they held out longer, they could expect a better deal from a Nixon Presidency than the deal that was on the table. The collapse of the Paris peace talks hurt the Humphrey campaign, helping Nixon to win. Four years later, the exact same deal that had been on the table in 1968 was signed, 25,000 American lives and more than a million Vietnamese lives extra. Talk about treason.

[Dinner]

Sandman: Apparently the U2s can provide 24 hour a day surveillance and the satellites cannot. A least that's what I heard.

MarkG: The inspector isn't named but this is a rather common practice in journalism when dealing with leaks of a political nature. Every so often in the U.S. you hear about a journalist who goes to jail for refusing to divulge his sources. Basically wither you believe the report boils down to wither you think the broadcaster is reputable or not. I'd vote that NPR is reputable and I bet I could even get a few people from the other side to back me up on that. NPR is no Guardian; it's the American equivalent to the CBC or the BBC.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Oerdin
That's the view many of the UN weapon's inspectors are telling reporters; that Iraq has been emboldened by the recent anti-war rallies and is now reneging on promises to provide access to inspectors.

Don't shot the messenger.

Which is fine. Most of the objection to the war has been along the lines of give the inspectors more time, and diplomatic options more of a chance. If Saddam misreads that into thinking he's immune, then he's sealed his fate, but at least his actions will make for greater international and arab world support for his removal, which is crucial to stabilizing a post-Saddam Iraq.

Sandman - spy satelites have known limitations (well known to Saddam, since the Reagan administration gave the Iraqi government raw take from KH-11 and KH-12 satellite intel on Iranian troop positions) that allows for easy concealment of many things. You know what their orbital tracks are, so you know exactly when they'll be back, the lighting conditions, and the angle of the imagery relative to the location of the objects or activities you want to disguise. The satellite tracking data is available internationally, from a number of sources, and can be verified with large amateur ground based telescopes.

U2's have lots of loiter time, and go when and where they please.