The fight over a war in Iraq has taken a new turn. The US say it has new evidence of Iraq’s possession of undeclared weapons (cluster bombs, to be exact) that are in violation of the UN resolution. Of course, the French and Russians are stonewalling again, saying they will not vote for any resolution authorizing the use of force (which is odd, since they voted for this last year). But that’s not the interesting part. The interesting game is the one the UN inspectors are playing.

I find it hard to believe that the inspectors (especially the lead inspectors) are approaching their jobs without political bias. What do I mean? Well, first, let’s look at what the US is doing. They are taking any shred of evidence (or non-evidence) of Iraqi noncompliance and making it a rally cry in the UN. The inspectors are doing the same thing on the other side of the political fence. Hans Blix will point out some bit of non-compliance by the Iraqis, then quickly change the subject and say how cooperative they’ve been. Read any interview with the man, and he will quickly gloss over the evidence.

Another point. Blix and the UN have repreatedly asked Iraq to produce documentation detailing the supposed destruction of stores of chemical weapons, but Iraq has claimed they don’t have that information. Please. This country keeps track of who has satellite TV, but they don’t record something like destroying hundreds of tons of anthrax? But the inspectors don’t seemed phased by this, instead proudly proclaiming Iraq is making huge strides in sharing information.

I’m not for this war. I want to see this resolved peacefully. But I also want the UN to do its job honestly and correctly. The inspectors should not be viewing the situation in Iraq through any political filters–their job is to find WMD stores or proof that they were destroyed. Nothing more, nothing less.

Posted on 10 March 2003