"When I heard Saddam say earlier this week that he wouldn't destroy his missiles, I knew by the end of the week he would pledge to the destroy them."
Saddam is playing games. Any fool can see it.
Regards, Ivan
Posted on 02/28/2003 3:03:16 AM PST by MadIvan
Britain and the United States today swiftly and scornfully rejected a suggestion from Iraq that it might yield to UN demands and destroy its medium-range missiles.
The regime said it was ready "in principle" to give up its Al-Samoud missiles, which the UN has ruled to be in breach of the 90-mile limit set on their range. But the offer gave no date for action, despite the deadline set for tomorrow.
Downing Street said it had been predicting just such a manoeuvre since Tuesday. A spokesman said: "This is how Saddam plays the game."
US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld was even tougher, declaring: "This is exactly what's been going on for years. They refuse to co-operate, drag it out until someone finally nails them with one piece of the puzzle. If one is looking for cooperation - which is what this is all about - the answer is they have not decided to co-operate."
The effort to win UN agreement for military action, led by the US and Britain, was given a muchneeded push today as it emerged the latest report from the chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, is sceptical about Iraq's willingness to disarm.
The leaked report, being unveiled officially this afternoon, says the results of three months of efforts to track down Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction have been disappointing.
The report says: "Iraq could have made greater efforts to find any remaining proscribed items or provide credible evidence showing the absence of such items. The results in terms of disarmament have been very limited so far."
After Tony Blair's talks in Madrid this morning with his most important European ally, Spanish premier JosíŸaria Aznar, the Prime Minister is hurrying back to speak to his own activists at a Labour Party conference in Wales in the so far unsuccessful effort to unite the party behind him.
The UN meanwhile was in continuing deadlock - and conflict - over the next steps. A bitter and increasingly ill-tempered Security Council session to discuss the draft resolution tabled by the Britain and the US broke up with no agreement. Russia's foreign minister said his country remained ready to veto the Anglo-US proposal if need be to protect "international stability".
Mr Blair and George Bush need to win over at least nine of the 15-strong Council, effectively by 14 March, as well as to avoid Russia, China and above all France exercising their veto.
Mr Blair plans further talks with the key leaders over the weekend and into next week. But the latest opinion poll confirmed the urgent need to win hearts and minds at home.
The survey, by YouGov for the Daily Telegraph, gives both Mr Blair and his government their lowest ratings since Labour came to power in 1997. Little more than a third of the voters now believe Mr Blair is the best prime minister for Britain, half his ratings at their peak. Only 34 per cent are satisfied with the Prime Minister's performance with 59 per cent unhappy.
The one consolation for the Government is it is still ahead of the becalmed Tories - Labour on 35 per cent, the Tories at 31 per cent, down one point on a month ago, and the Liberal Democrats up two to 26 per cent.
"When I heard Saddam say earlier this week that he wouldn't destroy his missiles, I knew by the end of the week he would pledge to the destroy them."
Saddam is playing games. Any fool can see it.
Regards, Ivan
The further point is that not only have we seen him pull this trick before, but did ANYONE doubt he would pull this trick *again*? I absolutely agree with you. Of course, I'd like to add (been posting this a lot lately, heh): WE NEVER SHOULD HAVE GONE TO THE UN IN THE FIRST PLACE. This was BOUND to happen. Admin. should have listened to Rumsfeld when he worried about waning support for an attack on Iraq if they didn't include it in the first round of strikes.
If something good comes out of this diplomatic mess, it will be that the UN, if not made completely irrelevant by their own actions (which is where my money is), it will be so weakened that it will no longer have any say on anything. Good God. I mean, the place has been a hotbed of anti-Semitism for years (I'm not Jewish, but anti-Semitism is one of my big pet peeves), it's appointed LIBYA to chair its Human Rights Commission -- the thing is a joke. When Powell is throwing up his hands and making noises that the UN is irrelevant...you KNOW the UN is in trouble, because Powell was one of the key people who convinced the admin. to go the UN and present 1441. How we ever expected NOT to get mired down in months of "process" that may very well translate into lost American lives when we DO go to war by going to the UN is beyond me. I think we thought we had a lot more diplomatic support than we actually did, and then the worms turned...although it does say a lot about Bush, that he was willing to give it a shot to accomodate (dare I say appease?) France and the other hand-wringing whiners.
If there has ever been a time for "unilateral" (in UN doublespeak, of course, never mind all the countries on our side) action, it's now. Not just to deal with Iraq as fast as possible, although that's the immediate concern, but to show the world we MEAN BUSINESS in the New Normal. The Slumbering Giant is WIDE awake and those who would seek to challenge the United States would be wise to remember we are the ONLY country to ever drop a nuke -- two, in fact -- and we'll do it again if we have to.
*whew* Sorry. I get heated about this stuff. ;-)
Beyond me, too.
However, there are many people who think we needed a delay to build up our military supplies (mostly munitions, etc.), which is a possibility. There are others who suggest that the delay was permitted because we also needed to root out Iraqi/terrorist supporters in this country, as well as carry out the organization of the Homeland Security Dept. and the reorganization of Immigration and the Coast Guard. This is also possible.
But in any case, it seems like it's high time now to do something. I feel that we are definitely going to lose a lot more American lives if this drags on. Not that the UN would care.
It appears that even Hans Blix is no longer buying into this Jedi mind trick, but the French, of course, still are.
I agree. Whether to go the UN route was a very close call to begin with. Incidentally, the main reason we did so was to get world opinion on our side. I guess that idea didn't work out exactly as we have hoped, although to be sure we do have lots of allies and lots of diplomatic support and I have no way of knowing whether our decision to go the UN route was the reason. The biggest surprise was that the French (and others) essentially double-crossed us on Resolution 1441.
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