Inspectors must return

Published 5:00 pm Sunday, September 22, 2002

Inspectors must returnPressure paid off. Saddam Hussein, generally a bad judge of Western intentions, finally took measure of the situation. He understood that President George W. Bush, in agreeing to go through the U.N. Security Council, had rallied a good part of the international community behind his position. … The inspectors must return to Iraq. We’ll know very quickly if they can work freely there. We’ll know in a few weeks whether Iraq has anything to hide. It’s the very least that public opinion – in the Arab world, Europe and the United States – has the right to insist on before a new war is launched.

– Le Monde, Paris

Bush stance commendedIn the few days since President Bush in effect demanded that the United Nations issue an ultimatum to Iraq, it has been instructive to observe the alacrity with which almost everybody is falling in behind Washington. The very same statesmen who had prophesied doom are now calling on Saddam Hussein to capitulate before his fate is sealed.

Meanwhile, Saddam himself has been galvanized into pre-empting a new Security Council resolution. The “unconditional” offer to re-admit weapons inspectors is, almost certainly, a ruse. … But this offer would never have been made had George W. Bush not been prepared to go to war. … Only once the Bush administration had decided to overthrow Saddam, if necessary alone, could the doubts elsewhere be resolved and a grand alliance put together. Only unilateralism made multilateralism possible.

– The Daily Telegraph, London