In addition to the question: “Where is Saddam Hussein?” the other question which the US needs to answer for the whole world — and very soon — is: “Where are the weapons of mass destruction?”
It is not a question, we suspect, that the US wants to concentrate on, a suspicion reinforced by the accusation from UN chief arms inspector Hans Blix that US officials tried to discredit his work in Iraq in order to further the case for war. As we said in an earlier piece, Washington’s prime aim in invading Iraq was to get rid of Saddam Hussein. He was an easy and convenient target for a Bush administration out to wipe away the pain and stain of Sept. 11 by showing the world that no one stands in America’s way and gets away with it; weapons of mass destruction were merely Washington’s pretext for toppling a tyrant regime it disliked.
But having chosen them as the key reason for war, Washington has to prove its case. If it does not, the world will forever believe that it paved the road to war with lies. The Bush administration knows that its credibility is at stake, which is why it has now sent in its own teams to look for weapons — although so far none have been found.
But sending in its own teams is not good enough. Just as no one was prepared to take Saddam Hussein’s word when he said that Iraq no longer had chemical or biological weapons, and instead insisted that there had to be independent verification, so too there are going to be a lot of people who will say that the US is making it up if its inspectors find any weapons. In fact, it would be insanity for the Bush administration to try that. The US government is notoriously leaky and the American press loves nothing better than exposing conspiracies in high places. Sooner or later, and probably sooner, the truth will out.
There are many people who are prone to believe in conspiracy theories where the US is concerned. The matter of fake documents passed on to the International Atomic Energy Agency supposedly indicating a supply of uranium from Niger to Iraq, which neither US nor British intelligence challenged and which still requires an answer as to who was behind the fraud, has not helped. For the sake of its own credibility, the search for weapons of mass destruction has to be in the hands of a team demonstrably independent of Washington. That means the IAEA and the UN inspectors led by Hans Blix. There is no one else that has the credibility, the authority and the skills. Washington’s repetition yesterday that it foresees no immediate role for Blix’s team is out of order. There is implied contempt for the work it did in Iraq, as if it deliberately failed to find the weapons Washington insists are there. That is not the case; the statement raises doubts about the Bush administration’s impartiality than it does about that of Blix’s team. There is no doubt that it was given the runaround by Saddam Hussein’s henchmen, but they are no longer on the scene. The team can be relied on to search out and find whatever is there. If there is nothing, then the US inspectors are not going to find it either. Blix’s team should be allowed to return immediately and find out once and for all whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. They are the only people the world trusts to tell the truth on the matter. The truth told and seen to be told is surely what Washington wants most of all.
