Saddam Defiant: The Threat Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction And The Crisis Of Global Security

Description

In the spring of 1999 I decided not to seek a new term as head of UNSCOM. the United Nation Special Commission formed to disarm one of the world's most dangerous and clever tyrants: Saddam Hussein. The two years I had spent battling the Iraqi dictator had been gruelling, but in the end it was not simply his recalcitrance that made it impossible for me to do my job properly That, after all, was the predictable cost of doing business with a dictator addicted to weapons of mass destruction. Nor was it a matter of America's unwillingness to hold Saddam's feet to the fire as some have charged, The heart of the matter, and the reason for my departure, lay not in the streets of Baghdad or in the underground bunkers in the Mesopotamian desert or even along Pennsylvania Avenue, but in New York, at the headquarters of the United Nations. Russia, a key member of the Security Council, bad become Saddam's most aggressive advocate. UN Secretary Genera! Kofi Annan repeatedly accommodated the Iraqis, trying again and again to deal with the problems raised by Saddam's outlaw regime by papering them over with hollow diplomacy It did not seem to matter to all of these people that the weapons Saddam was developing had the potential to destabilise the entire world order. Imagine the result were Saddam to attack Israel with a nuclear warhead or if the Iraqis were to release a chemical or biological agent into the London Underground. Since he threw the UN out of Iraq, he has been able to continue his chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programmes. Nobody knows exactly what he is building, but we do know that Iraq has long range missiles and has been hard at work at extending their range. We also know that Iraq possesses the means to make both chemical and biological weapons and that Saddam has a record of using these weapons, including on his own people. If Saddam Hussein gets away with facing down the UN and retains and rebuilds his weapons of mass destruction, he will destroy the world's best shot at controlling the spread of such weapons. He will destroy whatever remains of the credibility of the UN. ISBN:9780297646006