09/23/2002

EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10147

IRAQ RETURNS TO FORM

Once again, the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq claims that it will comply unconditionally with United Nations weapons inspections. But this seems to be a return to a familiar pattern.

In the past, Iraq has unconditionally accepted inspections and then turned around and made conditions. This has been the case since 1991, when Iraq accepted United Nations resolutions ending the Gulf War. As the loser of that conflict, Iraq agreed to the presence of U-N inspectors who would destroy, remove, or render harmless the country’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles with a range over one-hundred-fifty kilometers.

The record of Iraq’s noncompliance is long. In 1997, the U-N Security Council condemned the continued violations by Iraq of its obligations to cooperate fully and unconditionally with the weapons inspections. But by 1998, the Iraqi regime refused completely to let U-N weapons inspectors in to do their work without comprehensive renegotiation of terms.

The real issue, of course, is not inspections. "The issue," said U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, "is disarmament." Mr. Rumsfeld said that, "No terrorist state poses a greater and more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq." As President George W. Bush said, Saddam Hussein "is a man who has delayed, denied, [and] deceived the world. For the sake of liberty and justice for all, the United Nations Security Council must act."

The regime of Saddam Hussein may now be saying that it will allow U-N inspectors to enter Iraq. But, said President Bush, "reasonable people understand that this is just a ploy...when, in fact, he has not only killed his own people, he’s terrorized his neighborhood, and he’s developing weapons of mass destruction." As President Bush put it, "We must deal with him."