Iraq: A conversation today got me looking back at the original weapons inspections, and how these were more an exercise in spying and power games than a true attempt at disarming Iraq. No matter what Iraq might have done, it would not have been enough. The entire setup of these inspections was to have Iraq fail to comply. Some people still think those weapons inspections were carried out by a handful of woefully underequipped people who did not know a biological agent from a hole in the ground. This article and this one gives some insight in the games that were played and the motivations of the players. Afterwards, it was acknowledged by the then head of weapons inspections, Scott Ritter, that many of the inspectors were American spies. Some would say this was a smart move but I say this was stupid in the extreme. No country will now willingly have weapons inspectors in their sensitive facilities - after all, the US made it clear that the purpose of the inspectors was not to disarm and inspect but to provide military intelligence so that the US can later effectively target it's bombing when they attack....



The Iraquis had to be dragged along kicking and screaming but in the end the weapons inspections were quite succesful and, had they been used as they should have been, they would have continued with the job until it was finished and this drama would have been resolved many years ago. Saddam would still have been in control of Iraq but no threat to its neighbours or the rest of the world. Removing him from power would and should have been a matter for the Iraqui people, and the rest of the world should have helped them in his removal, if requested to do so - as they should with any dictator.



According to Scott Ritter, who certainly should know: Iraq has been "fundamentally disarmed", with 90-95% of its weapons of mass destruction eliminated. Of nuclear weapons capability, for example, Ritter says: '"When I left Iraq in 1998... the infrastructure and facilities had been 100% eliminated. There's no doubt about that. All of their instruments and facilities had been destroyed. The weapons design facility had been destroyed. The production equipment had been hunted down and destroyed. And we had in place means to monitor - both from vehicles and from the air - the gamma rays that accompany attempts to enrich uranium or plutonium. We never found anything."