Just say no to peace
“United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that he sees no basis at present for the use of force against Iraq. Mr Annan told Israeli radio that Baghdad was co-operating with UN weapons inspectors and that no military action should be considered at least until they had reported back to the Security Council.” – from a BBC News article
“Declaring that working for peace is one of his most serious New Year’s resolutions, Mr. Bush said, ‘Again, I hope this Iraq situation will be resolved peacefully.’ But, he added, ‘it appears that on first look that Saddam Hussein hasn’t heard the message.’ – from a New York Times article [registration required]
On one hand we have the U.N. Secretary General saying that Iraq is cooperating with the weapons inspectors, while on the other we have the President of the United States basically saying that he doesn’t think Saddam Hussein is cooperating at all. It seems to once again illustrate the fact that the U.S. has no desire to reach any sort of peaceful resolution with Iraq, no matter how much rhetoric the Bush administration has been putting out to make itself look reasonable.
On a related note, I’m currently reading a very interesting book called War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons Against War with Iraq, in which the author illustrates the many ways that the U.S. has worked to sabotage the inspection process, and any attempt to lift non-military sanctions against Iraq, during the years since the Persian Gulf War. It’s an eye-opening read, and lays the groundwork for understanding much of what the U.S. has said and done over the past year or two with regard to Iraq.
