Enough games, Iraq

Although U.N. inspectors in Iraq recently reported that they had failed in their attempt to find a needle in Iraq's haystack, Team Bush remained unconvinced of the inspectors' ability to produce a trustworthy report of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The U.S. has emphasized that Iraq needs to disarm the WMDs we know it possesses. Bush told reporters during a Cabinet Room meeting with leaders from Kenya and Ethiopia that the U.N. weapons inspectors' purpose inside Iraq was "to verify whether or not Mr. Saddam Hussein is going to disarm." The question was not if Iraq had weapons, but what kind and how many.\nIraq was told to publicize its list of WMDs in order to avoid future U.S. military interference as agreed upon back in the 1990's. President Bush decided that Iraq's failure to produce any documentation since 1998 constitutes reaction from the U.S. \nDefense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "The United States knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The U.K. knows that they have weapons of mass destruction. Any country on the face of the earth with an active intelligence program knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. It is not for some country to go in and give them a clean bill of health, it is for Iraq to give itself a clean bill of health by saying: 'Here's honestly what we currently have. Here's where it is. Here's what we've done. Please destroy it for us.'" \nWe'd hoped the U.N. would join us in the fight against terrorism. Allowing the U.N. to conduct weapons inspections inside Iraq was a nicety on our part, by delaying inevitable military action in Baghdad. Unfortunately, Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amen, the chief author of the inspections report, along with the other inspectors, took Iraq at its word that the weaponless places they visited prove that Iraq has no WMD's. Said Amin, "[If the United States] has the minimum level of fairness and braveness," it will accept the document as the truth.\nThe U.S. should not accept a flawed inspection report as truth. National security deserves greater respect than that. U.S. Senator Richard Lugar R-Ind., said Saturday that he, "was disappointed with the strategy of the U.N. inspection team in Iraq searching for weapons of mass destruction" (Dec. 8, Indianapolis Star). Lugar also believes that the assistance of Iraqi scientists could help the U.S. obtain a better idea of what WMD's Iraq is hiding.\nWhite House spokesman Ari Fleischer commented, "If an adversary wants to hide, it's not hard to hide weapons of mass destruction from even the best inspectors, particularly in a country the size of Iraq ... So Iraq is under an obligation, under international law, not to just not hide, but to cooperate. Iraq must cooperate. And this is what the inspectors and the world community will soon see if Iraq is indeed doing or not" (Dec. 6, The Washington Post).\nU.S. administrative officials should make clear to Iraq that continually denying possession of WMD's is evidence enough of a material breach of contract with the U.N. Security Council resolution, which calls for U.S. military action. Iraq needs to stop playing around and get its true documentation into the U.S., pronto. Any delay on Iraq's part sends the signal that it is still not ready to participate in a peace resolution.