Quote:
Originally posted by Cowperson@Oct 6 2004, 02:40 PM
One has to wonder what Saddam Hussein was doing playing chicken with the most powerful and paranoid nation on earth. If he had nothing, why not co-operate with UN weapons inspectors and demonstrate that? The report obviously concludes he wasn't co-operating with UN inspectors and was continually trying to circumvent sanctions.
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The problem is that when you are a country in the middle east, espcecially one with a lot of oil, you want to appear strong or ally yourself with powerful nations.
Iraq, at one time, was allied with and supported by the U.S. and Britain. For obvious reasons, this was not going to happen again. If Iraq completely exposed itself as a weak nation, it would have only been a matter of time until Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria started annexing parts of the country.
The trick was to change the diplomatic approach. The fact that UN inspectors were begging for more time in Iraq and claimed things were moving along, if slowly, shows that diplomacy could have worked. Too bad every statement and action Bush took made it practically impossible for Iraq to comply. There came a point when well before the war, everyone knew it was going to happen and there was nothing IRaq could have done to avoid it. Obviously at that point, why would they comply other than to buy time?