John Giorgis wrote:
>I should point out that inspectors have *never* before been used as
>*detectives.*
"J. van Baardwijk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
Oh come on, do you really expect us to believe that? When the US
gets a chance to send some people into Iraq to inspect military
facilities (with Saddam Hussein's permission!), do you really
believe the CIA would not make use of that opportunity?
Jeroen, your comments do not respond to John at all. Obviously,
spying has a long history. But the point that John is making is that
*legitimate* search is new. Remember, in the 1980s, Soviet troops
were posted in the United States. Their job was to keep track of the
number of trucks and other vehicles going into and out of certain US
weapons factories. However, those troops were not supposed to
investigate what was in the trucks. They could not be detectives.
>Thus, all of these proposals for the return of inspectors are essential
>proposals to have a certain group of people carry out a task for which
>they have not been initially trained, for which they have little
>experience in, and for which they are ill-suited.
Then give them the training and equipment they need -- it is a lot cheaper
than waging war (it costs less money, and inspectors are less likely to
return in a body bag than soldiers). As for experience: the only way to
gain experience with inspections is by carrying out those inspections.
The problem is that according to the Iraqi government (I recently read
a BBC translation of its statement), the Iraqi government does not
intend to give the inspectors the experience necessary. It intends to
prevent inspections as it did before, by requiring several hours air
traffic notification for helicopter travel, and by `respecting rooms
in Presidential palaces'.
Obviously, there is no reason to believe either the Iraqi or the
United States government. But if both make similar statements that
increase the likelihood of war between them, then perhaps there is
something to what they say. It is all a matter of judgement: to what
extent to do you believe statements by both the US and Iraqi
governments that the Iraqi government does not intend to permit
inspections? (The purpose of the statements, which has succeeded so
far, is to separate the US from allies who would more likely suffer
worse in a war than the US.)
--
Robert J. Chassell [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Rattlesnake Enterprises http://www.rattlesnake.com
Free Software Foundation http://www.gnu.org GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
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