Since the passage of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 in November, the United States and President Bush have supported weapons inspections in Iraq with the understanding that if results weren't fast and direct, there would be serious consequences. Last Friday, in the most recent Security Council debate, most members once again expressed their stubborn desire for continued inspections and made clear their unwillingness to support Resolution 1441. The weapons inspections charade should be ended, and the United States should pressure the Security Council to take immediate and decisive action to enforce Resolution 1441.
The original purpose of Resolution 1441 was to place the burden of proof on Iraq to prove that it had disarmed. It was not a call for unlimited inspections, nor did it require the United States to prove that Iraq was in material breach of countless resolutions stretching back to the end of the Gulf War. Rather, the resolution acknowledged that Iraq was already in material breach and that it would be given one more chance to prove that it was complying. The devastating evidence of communications intercepts and satellite images from Colin Powell's Feb. 5 speech of Iraq deceiving weapons inspectors clearly showed that Iraq is not complying.
The main argument voiced by France, Germany and other Security Council nations is that "progress" has been made with the weapons inspections and that this progress warrants continued inspections. These nations also contend that the solutions to ineffective inspections are beefed-up inspections. The problem with their logic is that proponents of weapons inspections have not yet defined a finite amount of progress that needs to be achieved before weapons inspections are ended. If these nations have a desired time frame for weapons inspections then they need to come out and state what it is. The truth is they don't have a time frame, and this point was demonstrated Friday when French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin was asked how much time Iraq should be given before inspections are ended, a question that he proceeded not to answer.
What has been forgotten over the past few months is that Inspector Blix Clouseau and his fellow detectives were not sent over to Iraq to play a never-ending game of hide-and-seek with Saddam and the Republican Guard. They were sent to verify Iraq's claims of disarmament. Most of us know that the weapons inspectors would not be able to find anything meaningful, the so-called "smoking gun" in a country the size of Texas given the fact that Iraq has had 12 years and billions of dollars to hide its weapons of mass destruction. But the Bush administration signed onto weapons inspections anyway, albeit only under the condition that if they were ineffective, military action would follow.
The Council is treading water in the deep end of the pool right now. By failing to back up Resolution 1441 with threats of serious consequences, the Council is risking that any future resolution it passes will not be taken seriously, especially by the country the resolution is aimed at. The Council must decide whether their resolutions will be respected and enforced or thrown by the wayside, without consequence.
The facts are cut and dry. No country, other than Iraq, has asserted or shown that Iraq has fulfilled its obligations to the international community. No member of the Council disputed that the "serious consequences" threatened in Resolution 1441 mean something other than military action. All 15 members of the Council voted unanimously to pass Resolution 1441. Given this, it is hard to comprehend why someone hasn't asked the German of French delegation why in the world they signed onto the resolution in the first place if they had no intention of enforcing it.
We all know the dangers of letting Saddam Hussein and his murderous regime continue to operate in the manner they have for the past 12 years. While the Council sits and debates in New York City, President Bush has wisely pointed out that Saddam continues to cultivate hundreds of pounds of anthrax, VX, botulinum and other deadly agents. Saddam continues to actively pursue a nuclear weapons program and construct missiles and systems to deliver them. Every extra day of ineffective weapons inspections and Iraqi mockery of the United Nations and the United States is another day Saddam uses to fortify his defenses and plan his counterattack in a possible war.
The United States must not be diverted from its goal of disarming Iraq and protecting herself from terrorism and all enemies foreign and domestic. Time has run out on the weapons inspections and the Iraqi efforts to subvert them. If the Council fails to enforce the resolution passed in November, the United States and its allies should move to quickly and decisively disarm Iraq through military means.
(Joe Schilling is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.)
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