If you picked up a newspaper over the weekend, I am quitecertain that you have learned that one of the biggest issuesconcerning the war in Iraq has been put to rest; there are noweapons of mass destruction. Liberal pundits and politicians, aswell as the mainstream media, have been quick to declare that thisinformation is an indictment of President Bush and the final proofthat Michael Moore was right, "President Bush lied about thereasons to go to Iraq." However, you probably did not read, view orhear much about the rest of U.S. Chief Weapons Inspector Charles A.Duelfer's report and its impact on our decision to go to Iraq.
Concerning U.N. sanctions, Duelfer's report shows that, "Iraqunder Saddam, created a network of Iraqi front companies, some withclose relationships to high-ranking foreign government officials... to procure illicit goods, services, and technologies for Iraq'sWMD-related, conventional arms, and/or dual-use goods programs."U.N. nations are the ones that ensured the availability of thesegoods and services. "Companies in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey,UAE, and Yemen assisted Saddam with the acquisition of prohibiteditems through deceptive trade practices. In the case of Syria andYemen, this included support from agencies or personnel within thegovernment itself." Senator Kerry's reliance on either the U.N. fora global test before securing ourselves or a reliance on sanctionsseems to be scary given these facts.
Duelfer's report indicates that the sanctions Senator Kerrywould have relied on would have failed and were nearly at an end by2003. "By 2000-2001, Saddam had managed to mitigate many of theeffects of sanctions and undermine their international support ...Iraq was within striking distance of a de facto end to thesanctions regime." Put simply, sanctions were not working. Iraq'sviolations of U.N. resolutions rendered the sanctions all butineffective. More so, Duelfer's analysis of Hussein's actions tofulfill the WMD requirements in U.N. resolutions were mainly in aneffort to end the sanctions as quickly as possible. Theunder-the-table deals made with U.N. nations were simply to keepinfrastructure in place for the rapid development of WMDs oncesanctions were lifted, "he fully intended to resume real WMDproduction after the expected lifting of U.N. sanctions, and hemaintained weapons programs that put him in 'material breach' ofU.N. resolutions including 1441." Saddam intended to rebuild hisWMD programs. Failing to address Iraq and bending to the lack of"global support" would have led to a re-armed Iraq.
The moral of the story is this: Before you accept the words ofmainstream media, be sure to review the documents they are citing.While most media coverage would suggest that Duelfer thinksPresident Bush's decision to invade Iraq was a mistake, the reportitself suggests otherwise. Iraq was able to manipulate U.N.nations, use the Oil-for-Food program for covert financial deals,render the sanctions ineffective and Hussein had every intention torebuild Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs once thesanctions expired. If you want to judge President Bush's decisionto go into Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein, you have to be preparedto accept the implications of not doing so.
Write to Brett at
bamock@bsu.edu
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