APPARENTLY, LITERACY ISN'T A REQUIREMENT FOR A SEAT ON THE SECURITY COUNCIL
I was just checking
this and thought I would relate some of the salient points and do a little critiquing:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein banned nuclear, chemical and biological weapons on Friday, meeting a longtime U.N. demand even as top weapons inspectors told the Security Council they have found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The presidential decree, sought by the United Nations for more than a decade, prohibited the production or importation of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and of all materials used to make them.
[...]
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told reporters in Syria that "with this (decree), we have met all that the inspectors demanded." Sabri was en route to an Arab foreign ministers' meeting in Egypt on Sunday.
So, let me get this straight: A presidential decree was passed 10 years after it was sought, by a despotic tyrant to outlaw his favorite weapons and suddenly we should be fawning at his feet for meeting "all that the inspectors demanded."
A little naive, I feel.
It continues:
The U.N. weapons inspection chiefs said that while Iraq has not been completely cooperative they have found no evidence that Iraq has resumed production of weapons of mass destruction. But they said some banned weapons materials have not been accounted for.
"One must not jump to the conclusion that they exist. However, that possibility is also not excluded," chief inspector Hans Blix said.
So Iraq has not been "completely cooperative"? Am I the only person who sees the coorelation between incomplete cooperation and the inability of inspectors to find banned weapons?
For those of you who don't get it, twelve years ago in April, 1991, the "venerable" UN passed resolution
687 that effectively ended the Persian Gulf War.
In this document were laid out demands that Saddam's regime must meet or they would face "serious" consequences.
Here are some interesting points(all emphasis added by author):
7. Invites Iraq to reaffirm unconditionally its obligations under the Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, signed at Geneva on 17 June 1925, and to ratify the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction, of 10 April 1972;
8. Decides that shall unconditionally accept the destruction, removal, or rendering harmless, under international supervisionof:
All chemical and biological weapons and all stocks of agents and all related subsystems and components and all research, development, support and manufacturing facilities;
All ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometres and related major parts, and repair and production facilities;
9. Decides, for the implementation of paragraph 8 above, the following:
Iraq shall submit to the Secretary-General, within fifteen days of the adoption of the present resolution, a declaration of the locations, amounts and types of all items specified in paragraph 8 and agree to urgent, on-site inspection as specified below;
So basically, Iraq was supposed to make a list within 15 days of the adoption of the resolution, hand it over to the UN, and fully and completely comply with international inspectors; this was to include all stocks of agents and all related subsystems and components and all research, development, support and manufacturing facilities.
Didn't I hear inspectors wondering outloud about missing nerve, chemical, and biological agents?
Please notice that this
does not say that Iraq can destroy this crap then tell everybody it's gone. They must destroy it under "international supervision". That means someone has to be watching.
The Secretary-General, in consultation with the appropriate Governments and, where appropriate, with the Director-General of the World Health Organization, within forty-five days of the passage of the present resolution, shall develop, and submit to the Council for approval, a plan calling for the completion of the following acts within forty-five days of such approval:
The forming of a Special Commission, which shall carry out immediate on-site inspection of Iraq's biological, chemical and missile capabilities, based on Iraq's declarations and the designation of any additional locations by the Special Commission itself;
The yielding by Iraq of possession to the Special Commission for destruction, removal or rendering harmless, taking into account the requirements of public safety, of all items specified under paragraph 8 (a) above, including items at the additional locations designated by the Special Commission under paragraph 9 (b) (i) above and the destruction by Iraq, under the supervision of the Special Commission, of all its missile capabilities, including launchers, as specified under paragraph 8 (b) above;
Please note the emphasized areas. I think that everyone agrees that the 12,000 pages of "declarations" submitted by Iraq was pretty much crap.
If Iraq's declarations are inaccurate, how are the weapons inspectors supposed to do their job? Are they supposed to play fucking Blue's Clues or Nancy Drew to find this stuff?
No. Iraq is supposed to "yield possession" of said items.
Resolution
1441 says pretty much the same thing. The UN reiterates its 16 other resolutions regarding Iraq.
"Serious consequences" are to be the result if Iraq does not comply.
I am flabbergasted when I hear weapons inspectors that have been run around in circles for years say that Iraq is not in "material breach" of UN resolution 1441.
The demands are laid out very clearly.
What more do they need?
Or should I say how much less do they need? I get the distinct feeling that these inspectors are not on the up-and-up.
Maybe Saddam and his loving son
Uday are buying a little
more than palaces and snuff films with his bloody oil money.
Just a quick side note: wonder how much UN monkey-licker meat costs per pound? Wanna pitch in and fire up the barbie?