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The inspectors may find some banned materials, by luck, perseverance and good intelligence — and because Saddam has made cunning tactical concessions. They will never find the bulk of the illegal weapons. But that is not their job. It is to monitor his voluntary disarmament. He is not doing that and he never will
Hans Blix, the United Nations’ chief weapons inspector, has demanded that Iraq destroy all its al-Samoud missiles that have been found to exceed the UN’s permitted range of 150 kilometres. Saddam Hussein may acquiesce for tactical reasons — above all because such “concessions” would convince many people that the inspections are “working” and that an armed attack is not only unnecessary but grotesque.
But the reality to remember is that Saddam will never voluntarily give up his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as resolution 1441 and 16 other resolutions demand. They are integral to his sense of his regime. His record shows that he considers no cost too high to retain his biological, chemical and whatever exists of his nuclear capability.
I think that for the pro-war group, the argument had passed disarmament and it has now become the moral duty of those with little conscience to attack Iraq.
Well said Rhia. It's not about the weapons of mass destruction. It's about implementing hegemony over the entire Middle East, in order to further the imperialist ideas of the new world order. I don’t think that occupying Iraq is only about oil. Big changes in the entire region will be enforced. It's nothing less than a crusade driven by evil mongers.
Now why would he disarm, if he paid good old American dollars for American made chemical and biological weapons. Sounds like a bad business strategy to me...
Inspectors say the missiles must start being destroyed on Saturday
Chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix has said Baghdad’s promise to destroy missiles is “very significant”.
Mr Blix ordered the destruction of the al-Samoud II weapons system because it breaches limits on Iraqi missiles imposed by the UN. Iraq agreed to start destroying the missiles by Saturday - a deadline laid down by Mr Blix which was being seen as a key test of Baghdad’s willingness to disarm.
Both the US and the UK dismissed the Iraqi offer as another example of Baghdad playing with the weapons inspectors.
But Mr Blix said: “This is a very significant piece of real disarmament.”