Beating the drums for Gulf War 3

Democrats worry Bush's setting up a war with Iran. And for good reason; this administration has tried to use "diplomacy" to trigger a war at least once before.

No joke. In Fall of 2002, Bush made an appearance at the U.N. demanding Iraq be pressured to shutdown its (non-existent) WMD program.

U.N. Resolution 1441 was passed to give Saddam Hussein's Iraq one last chance to comply with its "disarmament obligations", set by previous resolutions. To the neocon's dismay, Hussein obliged and completely cooperated with the inspection process, as stated in these U.N. press releases:

IRAQ COOPERATING WITH DISARMAMENT PROCEDURES, BUT MANY BANNED WEAPONS REMAIN UNACCOUNTED FOR, INSPECTORS TELL SECURITY COUNCIL

Quote from the release:

Since the Commission's arrival in Iraq, it had conducted more than 400 inspections covering more than 300 sites, he continued, including industrial sites, ammunition depots, research centres, universities, presidential sites, mobile laboratories, private houses, missile production facilities, military camps and agricultural sites. All inspections were performed without notice, and access was almost always provided promptly. In no case had he seen convincing evidence that the Iraqi side knew in advance that the inspectors were coming.

UN INSPECTORS FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF PROHIBITED WEAPONS PROGRAMMES AS OF 18 MARCH WITHDRAWAL, HANS BLIX TELLS SECURITY COUNCIL

Quote from the release:

Given the media attention to mobile facilities, he said that even before UNMOVIC began its inspections in November 2002, the Commission had received information about such facilities and the inspectors were looking for sites where such mobile units could be hooked up for support services. Upon his request, the Iraqi side had presented some information about mobile systems they possessed. As evident in his report, neither the information presented nor pictures given to the inspectors by the Iraqi side matched the description that had recently been made available to them, as well as to the media, by the United States. At UNMOVIC, he could not, of course, make a proper evaluation of the depicted vehicles on the basis of published material alone.

When the U.N. inspectors failed to find a single non-existent weapon of mass destruction, Bush decided to invade and ordered the inspectors out. Repeat:

- He gave Saddam Hussein one last chance to comply
- Saddam complied
- Bush invaded anyway.

So much for diplomacy!

I wrote "to the neocon's dismay" above because the Bush administration never intended to deal with Iraq peacefully. They intended 1441 to be the trigger that would justify their invasion. i.e. They fully expected Saddam to violate 1441 by rebuffing the U.N. inspectors, thus justifying the invasion.



So I'm a bit wary when this administration calls the sanctions against Iran a "pathway of diplomacy". This exchange between a reporter and the State Department's spokesman isn't encouraging either:

QUESTION: So in other words, this is a way to avert war, the way you look at it?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I'm not going to -- it is a way to prevent Iran from obtaining the technologies that would allow it to build a nuclear weapon.

QUESTION: And a way to prevent the U.S. from launching military action, which would be unpopular.

MR. MCCORMACK: It is exactly as I said.
(source)

"It is exactly as I said": Translation: "No, we are not trying to avert war..."