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Disarming
Iraq
The
former director of the UN Inspection Commission gives
his account of the search for weapons of mass destruction
and the events leading up to America’s invasion and
occupation of Iraq
Hans Blix
Photo: Pantheon Books, 2004
Order Book On-Line Below.
Disarming Iraq
By Hans Blix
“In a now famous interview, U.S. Deputy Secretary
of Defense Wolfowitz said that Iraq’s weapons of mass
destruction were chosen as the rationale for the war for
“bureaucratic” reasons, implying that while there were
many other reasons, this was the only rationale that could
rally broad support in U.S. public opinion and that stood a
chance at having appeal outside the U.S. and inside the
United Nations.”
* * *
“It
was the only one that was presented as a justification in
the United Nations, and it was by far the most important
reason offered to the U.S. Congress and the American
public.”
* * *
“The
Iraq war cannot be undone. The costs of the war and the occupation – in terms of loss
of lives and property, billions of dollars spent, damage to
the UN and NATO, credibility of political leaders, the
fostering of hatred, and so on – are written in red.
What we can do is examine if there are other things
to be written in black….”
“The
obvious first thing to write in big black letters is the
destruction of one of the bloodiest regimes and most
ruthless rulers the world has seen since World War II.
This was, indeed, a welcome result of the war, but
was neither the avowed aim nor the justification given for
it.”
* * *
"In an interview in December 2003, President Bush said that it made no real difference if Saddam Hussein had had weapons of mass destruction or only the possible intention of acquiring them. In either case, the world was better without him. It is."
*
* *
“One
would certainly wish that after decades of tyranny and war,
the people will mobilize their own considerable intellectual
resources and be given a maximum of help from the world to
move toward a democracy in which the different religious and
ethnic groups will learn to cooperate.”
*
*
*
“Some would write yes in the black and argue that that all terrorists movements will know that after the experience of September 11, 2001, the U.S. will go after any movement that it perceives as a threat. Others will write in red that there is a risk that, especially if further mistakes are made, more states and people around the world may come to view the U.S. as a global bully, and that many Muslims and Arabs will consider the occupation of Iraq a humiliation, and that this feeling may breed hatred – and further terrorism.
“There is a fourth point, which Condoleezza Rice would consider a plus, but on which I would disagree. She tried in October 2003, somewhat heroically I think, to argue that if the resolutions of the UN had ‘not been enforced, the credibility of the United Nations [would have] been in tatters….’”
“The
majority of the Council felt that it was too early to
abandon the path of inspections, which had been followed
only for three and a half months.
There is something strange about the argument that
the authority of the Security Council could be upheld by the
minority of states in the Council ignoring the views of the
majority.”
* * *
“To
the U.S. hawks there was little problem: They knew the
weapons of mass destruction were there.
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld knew that the defectors
were a good source of information and the inspectors were
not. To Vice
President Cheney, the inspectors were useless at best. To
the Germans, French, Russians, Chinese and many others,
inspections were working reasonably well in March 2003 and
should have been allowed to continue, at least for some
time.”
*
*
*
“Nevertheless,
in March 2003 the policy of containment was abandoned in the
case of Iraq and counter-proliferation was applied: a UN and
IAEA inspection force of fewer that 200 inspectors costing
perhaps $80 million per year was pushed out and replaced by
an invasion force of some 300,000 costing approximately $80
billion per year.”
*
*
*
“There
was another option for the states that wished to take armed
action against Iraq in the spring of 2003. They could have heeded the Council’s requests for more time
for inspection. Support
by the Security Council for preemptive armed action would
have given the armed action legitimacy.
“Instead,
a greater price was paid for this action:
in the compromised legitimacy of the action, in the
damaged credibility of the governments pursuing it, and in
the diminished authority of the United Nations.”
*
*
*
*
*
Hans Blix was the director general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency from 1981 to 1997 and was a member
of Sweden’s delegation to the United Nations from 1961 to
1981.
From
2000 to 2003, he was the executive director of the United
Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission
(UNMOVIC), supervising international inspections for
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq until the inspections
were suspended in March 2003.
Hans
Blix has been named chairman of the newly formed
International Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction,
which began its work in January 2004.
He lives in Sweden.
Disarming
Iraq is
published by Pantheon Books, New York, 2004.
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