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The following Op-Ed piece is reprinted from the Boston Globe as a "fair use" for educational purposes. Copies of this article may be obtained for a fee from the Boston Globe on-line. This website has no authority to grant permission to reprint this article.
IS
IRAQ A TRUE THREAT TO THE US?
Author(s): SCOTT RITTER Date: July 20, 2002 Page: A13 Section: Op-Ed
RECENT
PRESS REPORTS INDICATE THAT PLANNING FOR WAR AGAINST IRAQ HAS ADVANCED
SIGNIFICANTLY. WHEN COMBINED WITH REVELATIONS ABOUT THE GRANTING OF PRESIDENTIAL
AUTHORITY TO THE CIA FOR COVERT OPERATIONS AIMED AT ELIMINATING SADDAM HUSSEIN,
IT APPEARS THAT THE UNITED STATES IS FIRMLY COMMITTED TO A PATH THAT WILL LEAD
TOWARD WAR WITH IRAQ.
Does
Iraq truly threaten the existence of our nation? If one takes at face value the
rhetoric emanating from the Bush administration, it would seem so. According to
President Bush and his advisers, Iraq is known to possess weapons of mass
destruction and is actively seeking to reconstitute the weapons production
capabilities that had been eliminated by UN weapons inspectors from 1991 to
1998, while at the same time barring the resumption of such inspections. I bear
personal witness through seven years as a chief weapons inspector in Iraq for
the United Nations to both the scope of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction
programs and the effectiveness of the UN weapons inspectors in ultimately
eliminating them.
While
we were never able to provide 100 percent certainty regarding the disposition
of Iraq's proscribed weaponry, we did ascertain a 90-95 percent level of
verified disarmament. This figure takes into account the destruction or
dismantling of every major factory associated with prohibited weapons
manufacture, all significant items of production equipment, and the majority of
the weapons and agent produced by Iraq.
With
the exception of mustard agent, all chemical agent produced by Iraq prior to
1990 would have degraded within five years (the jury is still out regarding
Iraq's VX nerve agent program - while inspectors have accounted for the
laboratories, production equipment and most of the agent produced from 1990-91,
major discrepancies in the Iraqi accounting preclude any final disposition at
this time.)
The
same holds true for biological agent, which would have been neutralized through
natural processes within three years of manufacture. Effective monitoring
inspections, fully implemented from 1994-1998 without any significant
obstruction from Iraq, never once detected any evidence of retained proscribed
activity or effort by Iraq to reconstitute that capability which had been
eliminated through inspections.
In
direct contrast to these findings, the Bush administration provides only
speculation, failing to detail any factually based information to bolster its
claims concerning Iraq's continued possession of or ongoing efforts to acquire
weapons of mass destruction. To date no one has held the Bush administration
accountable for its unwillingness - or inability - to provide such evidence.
Secretary
of Defense Rumsfeld notes that "the absence of evidence is not evidence of
absence." This only reinforces the fact that the case for war against Iraq
fails to meet the litmus test for the defense of our national existence so
eloquently phrased by President Lincoln.
War
should never be undertaken lightly. Our nation's founders recognized this when
they penned our Constitution, giving the authority to declare war to Congress
and not to the president. Yet on the issue of war with Iraq, Congress remains
disturbingly mute.
Critical
hearings should be convened by Congress that will ask the Bush administration
tough questions about the true nature of the threat posed to the United States
by Iraq. Congress should reject speculation and demand substantive answers. The
logical forum for such a hearing would be the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.
Unfortunately,
the senators entrusted with such critical oversight responsibilities shy away
from this task. This includes Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, a Vietnam War
veteran who should understand the realities and consequences of war and the
absolute requirement for certainty before committing to a course of conflict.
The
apparent unwillingness of Congress to exercise its constitutional mandate of
oversight, especially with regard to matters of war, represents a serious blow
to American democracy. By allowing the Bush administration, in its rush toward
conflict with Iraq, to circumvent the concepts of democratic accountability,
Congress is failing those to whom they are ultimately responsible - the
American people.
Scott Ritter is author of "Endgame: Solving the Iraqi Problem Once and For All."