[Peace-discuss] U.N. resolution for Iraq makes war inevitable (duh!)

[R. Brad Scott]

http://salon.com/news/feature/2002/11/15/war/print.html

...
But most experts doubt that Saddam will be able to finesse the issue
that far. Indeed, he may well run afoul of the U.N. right off the bat.
"The question is, can Saddam satisfy the demands of the resolution,
which is filled up with traps for Iraq to fall into," asks Guntzel.

The first test will come on Dec. 8, when Iraq, according to 1441, must
deliver "a currently accurate, full, and complete declaration of all
aspects of its programs to develop chemical, biological, and nuclear
weapons, ballistic missiles, and other delivery systems." The U.S. will
compare the submitted list to its own internal intelligence to
determine whether Saddam is being open and forthright. Any omissions
from that list or false statements would constitute a material breach,
according to the Security Council.

"Is it even humanly possible for them to record all that information?"
wonders Lopez. "Could the Soviet Union have provided this inventory at
the height of the cold war, compared to a backward, secretive country
like Iraq where so few people actually know all the information about
the weapons program?"

How the weapons declaration is handled by the administration, which has
called for "zero tolerance" for inspection violations, will be an early
indication of the White House's mind-set. ... if hawks at the White
House have their way, the U.S. would launch a war based on omissions
from the Dec. 8 weapons list... "The hawks don't want the resolution to
work. They want an excuse to go in and get Saddam now."
...
"There are some in the administration who obviously want to do more
than inspections; you can feel their aching," says P.W. Singer, an Olin
fellow in the foreign-policy studies program at the Brookings
Institution.

The hawks' first big chance may be when Iraq submits its list of
weapons. "It will be the single most difficult obstacle [for Saddam]
because the United States will say the list is no good," says Judith
Kipper, co-director of the Middle East Program at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies. "But France and Russia and Israel
will have their own lists and nobody [for competitive reasons] will
want to share them."
...

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