Saddam Hussein and his followers are undoubtly quite pleased with themselves. They are playing the International community like a fiddle as evidenced in this latest article on the Reuters’ wire. Hussein’s every public move is calculated for its affect on the world community for delaying the US effort to enforce the UN resolutions by use of military force. It seems clear that Saddam Hussein has no intention of complying with the UN resolutions. It seems incredulous that anyone actually believes that anything short of military force is going to bring Iraq into compliance with the demands set forth by the United Nations. France, Germany, Mr. Blix and the world press are Saddam Hussein’s instruments with which he is orchestrating the master piece of his continuance in power.
It is my opinion that the United Nations and especially the UN Security Council need to fish or cut bait. There is little doubt that Hussein wields just as much power today as he did at the end of the Gulf War. Some would argue that he has managed to increase the power at his control. The sanctions that the UN has had in place for twelve years have done exactly nothing to undermine Hussein’s power base. The United Nations has succeeded in punishing innocent Iraqis for the actions of a leader they have no ability to remove.
Saddam Hussein is motivated by one thing and one thing only. His continued accumulation of power. Saddam Hussein cares not one wit about the Iraqi people save their contribution to his power. Saddam Hussein has used lethal gasses outlawed by the Geneva Convention on his own populace [dead link]. Hussein’s son routinely tortured Iraq’s Olympic athletes to the extent that a torture chamber was built in the training compound where the athletes lived and trained. The human rights record of the government of Iraq under the leadership of Saddam Hussein is well documented by Amnesty International and other similar groups.
If the UN and its Security Council are not going to allow the enforcement of their resolutions by the use of military force then they should withdraw their resolutions, lift the sanctions and make some kind of an honest effort to help the Iraqi people. Current UN policies are doing nothing to bring Saddam Hussein into compliance and are extracting an extremely high cost from the Iraqi people. The United Nations at this point appears incompetent to resolve world issues and too ignorant, arrogant or naive to realize its own ineffectiveness.
Aloha