From: "Strong, Lee" <strongl at sddc.army.mil>
To: "WSFAList (E-mail)" <WSFAList at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] WMD in the Real World
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 15:10:52 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

    Barry humorously suggested that Saddam's WMD programs might be found
on Mars rather than Syria as Dr. Kay seriously suggested.  Barry and about
50 other comedians.
    The critical difference between George W. Bush and Kofi Annan is
that the former takes the UN and international commitments seriously while
the latter does not.  Various people wanted a "robust" inspection program of
about 5,000 inspectors guarded by 10,000+ troops before going to war.
Leaving aside the difference between 15,000 allied forces in country and
150,000 allied forces in country from the Iraqi point of view, what would
the 5,000 inspector force have accomplished?  The actual 150 inspector force
turned up actual, physical, touch them and count them illegal weapons in the
form of long range rockets.  CBS News showed file footage of those rockets
in the last week.  What did the UN do when confronted with the evidence?
Answer:  Nothing.  Well, nothing effective.  Just pass another resolution
for Saddam to ignore.  If 5,000 inspectors had turned up 30 times as much
evidence as the 150 inspectors actually did, the UN would just have closed
its eyes 30 times as tightly.  The moral case for war was adequate without
5,000 inspectors wasting time before the Iraqi people were freed.
    Putting together a coalition?  I kind of thought that 63 nations
contributing people and other resources was a coalition.  As a point of
comparison, the original UN was only composed of 51 nations.  UN support?
Strictly a fig leaf under the American constitutional system.  Bill Clinton
certainly didn't have any UN support when he launched his war in Kosovo, and
Wes Clark cites that war as the example of how to do things.  To the extent
that UN approval is desirable, Resolution 1441 was all the authority
necessary.  As stated above, George Bush took it seriously; Kofi Annan among
others didn't.  As the Iraqi ambassador to the UN recently stated to that
body, George Bush freed the Iraqi people when Kofi Annan and other critics
didn't.