Friday August 2, 2002 4:00 AM
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - With talk of
U.S. action against Iraq escalating, the
Iraqi government Thursday invited the
chief U.N. weapons inspector to
Baghdad, hinting that inspections
could be renewed after nearly four years.
The BBC first thing this morning has immediately had a lengthy, and
persuasive interview with Scott Ritter. Ritter the former weapons inspector
in Iraq points out that the overnight initiative by Iraq is exactly what
the Bush administration does not want.
It takes advantage of the differences between the US and Europe, and opens
up the contradictions within the administration. After investing so much
political capital (Ritter's words) in building up momentum for a war for a
"regime change" in Iraq, Bush does not need at this moment an initiative
that could lift sanctions and rehabilitate Iraq into the network of
accepted normal international relations between states.
The speed and authority of the BBC's interview iillustrates the post
Zimmerwald choreography of anti-US hegemonist world politics which I have
discussed in other contexts.
Saddam has taken advantage of the contradictions between the imperialist
powers
I expect and demand that US progressives pile in behind this opening which
Scott Ritter has signalled. That will be the true art of class struggle in
the concrete conditions of the world today.
Chris Burford
London
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-1921731,00.html
