phillyfan26
Blue Crack Supplier
- Joined
- May 7, 2006
- Messages
- 30,343
Saddam has to fully cooperate for the UN inspectors to be able to do their job. The UN inspectors made no progress, NONE, on accounting for thousands of stocks of WMD that had remained unaccounted for since they were last there in November 1998. Saddam did nothing to try to account for such stocks, and hid programs related to the production of WMD that were in violation of multiple UN resolutions and the Gulf War Ceacefire agreement. If Saddam had any intention of coming clean, he could have taken the UN inspectors to these programs as soon as they stepped off the plane in November 2002. Instead, these things were found by the US military and other investigators in the summer and fall of 2003 after Saddam had been removed from power.
Bush got resolution 1441 passed in November which along with other UN resolutions authorized the coaltion to take military action to bring about compliance. Saddam's had several months to peacefully come into compliance, and he did NOTHING to successfully resolve any of the outstanding issues and its been proven that he never disclosed program related WMD activities. The UN inspectors were never authorized to inspect for set period of time, nor was any minimum time set before which military action could begin.
If the UN was opposed to the invasion, where is the UN resolution or attempt at one to condemn the invasion in 2003? Where is the UN resolution or attempt at one to call for the withdrawal of all coalition forces from Iraqi territory? Instead, we have resolution UN resolution 1483 being passed in the summer of 2003 authorizing the occupation of Iraq by US and coalition forces. The UN has authorized the occupation every year since then, yet you claim that Bush did not work with the UN.
The need for military action is explained in UN resolution 1441 and continues to this very day to be the chief reason why the Bush administration supported the removal of Saddam from power. Colin Powell and Condi Rice to this day still explain the need to remove Saddam based on his failure to comply with UN resolutions, his past behavior, and the crumbling of sanctions and the weapons embargo. No one has ever claimed that the United States removed Saddam from power because he was being "cruel" to his own people. Sorry, but no one lied.
Once again the inspections process is a peaceful process that requires the FULL ACTIVE cooperation of Saddam regime. The UN inspectors never got that from Saddam either in the 1990s, or in late 2002 and early 2003. Simply being allowed into the country resolves nothing as Bill Clinton found out at the end of his administration.
Clinton carefully stated, in the same way Bush would four years later, that Saddam was a threat to the region and the security of the world. That the ONLY way to remove this threat once and for all was through regime change, not endless inspections that Saddam could always fool.
Not a surprise that Bill Clinton, his chief advisor on Iraq Kenneth Pollack, and his wife then a Senator, all supported Bush's ground invasion to remove Saddam.
I'm done.
I just hope people who do not understand these issues don't buy into your fear-mongering propaganda. That would be scary.