Jewish World Review Oct. 21, 2002 / 15 Mar-Cheshvan, 5763

Jack Kemp

Jack Kemp
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports

How to disarm Iraq

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | The Iraqi government, after much deceit, evasion and obstruction, has said yes to letting weapons inspectors back into the country and giving them immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to anywhere they desire to go, including "sensitive areas," the so-called "presidential palaces."

My friend the columnist Bill Safire says we should not take Iraq's yes for an answer. I think we should, with the ultimate aim of completely disarming Iraq. First, get inspectors back into Iraq backed up by a credible threat of military force. That's why Congress gave the president the authority to use force if necessary. We should keep this loaded gun cocked and at the ready.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said recently that in order "to pre-empt the future production of weapons of mass destruction, (Russia) will do whatever it takes together with the United Kingdom and other members of the Security Council."

Now is the time for the United Nations to pass a new resolution based upon Putin's "whatever is necessary" principle that would allow the chief weapons inspector, like a sheriff with a search warrant in hand, to show up at Saddam Hussein's door backed up with a credible threat of force sufficient to ensure the inspectors' safety and effective operation within Iraq.

I do not believe Iraq would resist, but if they do, by all means lower the boom and apply the force required, but only that required to successfully effect the search and destroy any weapons discovered. There is no need to burn down the house to gain entry, and disarmament is the goal, not a pre-emptory unilateral regime change. Regime change should only be undertaken as the ultimate means, if necessary, to effect disarmament.

I agree with Secretary of State Colin Powell that "the regime will not have to be changed if the regime changes its behavior" and that "military action will not be necessary if Iraq cooperates with the inspectors and eliminates all weapons of mass destruction." No matter how much we may suspect the regime will not change its behavior, cooperate fully with inspectors and voluntarily disarm, we cannot simply assume that to be the case and attack Iraq without a serious inspections effort first.

The hawks argue that President George W. Bush should not take yes for an answer because Hussein doesn't really mean yes when he says it. Safire, for example, argues that Hussein is simply "buying his scientists and arms buyers needed time to provide enriched uranium as well as the ability to deliver a germ weapon to the West's major cities. His technique has worked for him time and again over the past dozen years: acquiesce under pressure, play hide-and-seek with inspectors and then -- with France and Russia eager to do business -- eject the U.N. 'spies.'"

While I understand this concern, history demonstrates that Hussein's "technique" was actually a complete and utter failure. In spite of all manner of lying, obstructionism and delay by the Iraqis, the inspectors could report by the time they left in 1998 (they were not "ejected") that Saddam's nuclear capability was 99 percent destroyed, and they verified the destruction of more than 90 percent of his chemical and biological capability. Yes, he thumbed his nose at us and caused the inspectors all manner of inconvenience, but obscene gestures and inconvenience are no grounds for war.

Safire et al. respond that there is no way to know how far along Hussein has come in reconstituting his WMD capabilities since the inspectors left in 1998. As evidence, they cite the fact that although we thought Hussein was five years or more away from acquiring a nuclear weapon before the Gulf War, when inspectors went in after the war, they discovered he would have had a bomb within a year. Thus, the hawks argue, we must assume he has reconstituted his WMD capability since 1998 and therefore time is of the essence.

But that logic is fallacious. Iraq couldn't have a nuclear weapon without having tested it, which we certainly would have known about. If we had evidence of a nuclear test by Iraq, Bush certainly would have revealed it to the world by now. Moreover, unlike al-Qaeda, which would use weapons of mass destruction the minute it obtained them, Hussein has always sought WMD to blackmail and deter an attack. Yet that is impossible to do as long as he protests he doesn't have any. Almost certainly the CIA is correct when it says Iraq has not yet reconstituted its WMD capacity, and the surest way to ensure it does not is to get inspectors back into the country ASAP.

To his great credit, Bush has not been snookered by those whose agenda is more one of conquest than disarmament. He clearly does not intend to allow himself to be stampeded into immediately using his newly authorized grant of power from the Congress to invade Iraq, as evidenced by his unambiguous statement last week that military action is neither imminent nor unavoidable.

The president has played brinksmanship well up to this point, and it has been successful. A wise leader knows when he is succeeding and when to take yes for an answer.

Enjoy this writer's work? Why not sign-up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

Jack Kemp is co-director of Empower America and chairman of Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Comment by clicking here.



Up

10/10/02: Time for a White House-Fed concord on tax cuts
10/03/02: Questions to ponder
08/25/02: A great democratic revolution
08/23/02: Time to get serious about the economy
08/16/02: The territorial truth
08/01/02: No economic security without economic growth
07/24/02: 'Infectious greed' and other miasmatic diseases
07/12/02: Solving the "Arab Problem"
07/02/02: July 4, 2002
06/26/02: Unsigning an unratified treaty
06/10/02: Establishing 'givens' in Middle East geo-politics
06/10/02: New role models for Africa
05/02/02: What wasn't heard out of Crawford
04/25/02: In search of Arab dignity
04/16/02: Taxes and history lessons
04/09/02: Arabs must take a stand against terrorism
04/02/02: Nuevo dependencia and world government
03/26/02: Bureaucratic buffoonery at the INS
03/19/02: California's newest citizen politician
03/06/02: Peaceful relations or public relations?
02/27/02: American trade policy at war with itself
02/20/02: Three-conjecture strategy on global warming
02/14/02: Nurturing democratic capitalism in Afghanistan
02/06/02: Gephardt embraces tax cuts and tax simplification
01/30/02: Just the facts
01/22/02: 'Been down so long it looks like up to me'
01/15/02: Confronting terror wherever it occurs
01/09/02: Daschle's war on Bush
01/03/02: Prosperity policies, not partisan politics
12/27/01: Governments create calamity, markets get the blame
12/18/01: 'Tis the season for Daschle to compromise
12/12/01: Hard choices made simple
12/05/01: Straight talk on Iraq
11/28/01: Not all tax cuts are created equal
11/20/01: Words have consequences
11/15/01: Deflationary recession
11/07/01: Consider Mideast reality in the war on terrorism
10/30/01: No 'stimulus' required
10/23/01: Good out of evil
10/16/01: Watching Iraq
10/12/01: The putrid stench of evil
10/04/01: Trade, terror and truth
10/01/01: Drive this scourge from the face of the Earth
09/25/01: Bush emerges as leader for his time
09/06/01: Middle East Madness has a chief instigator
08/30/01: It's about economic growth, stupid!
08/22/01: Phlebotomizers at the IMF
08/17/01: The Greenspan Recession
08/08/01: From Kyoto to Bonn, no science equals nonsense
07/25/01: Fiddling while the world economy freezes
07/19/01: Schundler should be New Jersey's next governor
07/12/01: Second wind for the global economy
07/06/01: An interest-rate target with no bull's-eye
06/28/01: Tax harmonization --- American-style
06/21/01: Warming diplomacy --- at what price?
06/13/01: A party that stands for nothing deserves to lose
06/07/01: No peace in the Middle East
05/30/01: Jeffords' palace coup
05/24/01: A supply-side energy plan
05/16/01: Getting Lincoln right
05/10/01: A good reason to borrow
05/01/01: Supreme Court makes racial profiling the law of the land
04/26/01: Campaign finance reform: silencing the lambs
04/17/01: Right wanted might in China case
04/12/01: How minority entrepreneurs can save the tax cut
04/04/01: Whose privacy is it?
03/29/01: A letter from Seoul
03/20/01: Ignore the double talk and double the tax cuts
03/13/01: Don't give up the bully pulpit on Social Security, Mr. President
03/06/01: Another attack on the economy
02/28/01: It's time to end deflation
02/21/01: Building blocks of humanity
02/15/01: Trumping the propaganda
02/06/01: The Gipper at 90
01/30/01: Kicking off a season of economic growth
01/24/01: The Bush tax agenda
01/17/01: Debating the Clinton legacy
01/10/01: No need for another Social Security commission
01/03/01: Truly a Golden Age, if we can keep it
12/27/00: The Grinch who turned off the holiday lights
12/20/00: Forging ahead
12/13/00: A new tax system for the 21st Century
12/07/00: Global government in retreat
11/30/00: An open letter to Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan
11/21/00: Don't forget the guy in charge
11/15/00: Civic virtue, civic vice
11/08/00: Memo to the president-elect
10/31/00: Scare tactics won't work
10/24/00: Prosperity in the balance
10/11/00: Al Gore's economics of fear
10/03/00: Al Gore IS debatable
09/27/00: Government should protect our online privacy
09/13/00: The most important issue
09/05/00: Defeating the Gore blitz
08/29/00: Workers of the world, rejoice
08/22/00: Just the facts, Mr. President
08/08/00: Reclaiming Lincoln's legacy
06/23/00: A renaissance for urban America?
06/16/00: Capital access can bridge 'digital divide'
06/08/00: Some friendly advice for Rick Lazio
05/26/00: Is the economy being saved or destroyed?
05/22/00: Immigration and the promise that is America
05/12/00: Stock market roulette or snobbery?
05/04/00: Is Rule of Law whatever we say it is?
05/01/00: Myths happen

© 2002, Copley News Service