In a scathing attack on Britain and the US, Mr Blix accused them of planning the war "well in advance" and of "fabricating" evidence against Iraq to justify their campaign.
Mr Blix said Iraq was paying a "a very high price in terms of human lives and the destruction of a country" when the threat of banned weapons could have been contained by UN inspections.
The 74-year Swedish diplomat made clear that he believes he was misled by President Bush. At a White House meeting last October Mr Bush backed the work of Unmovic, the UN inspection team.
Is this some sudden revelation that Bush wanted to go to war? Bush was up front that Iraq was a danger. He was willing to go to war last fall. He didn’t mislead anyone. The U.N. wanted to find a peaceful solution. Everyone in the Security Counsil agreed to Resolution 1441. That document said that Iraq had to fully comply with the inspectors and they did not. When the allies pointed out that Saddam was in breach, Blix started saying that the inspections were working. What? Whether the inspections were working was never the point. The point was whether Iraq was cooperating. Colin Powell played the tape for the Security Council where the Iraqi was ordered to hide contraband, but no one cared. As long as Blix was traveling through the country pretending to inspect, the United States was supposed to stand down.
Bush was readying for war, because Saddam could not be trusted. Bush knew war was inevitable, because he knew Saddam wouldn’t comply. Is that disingenuousness or is that insight? The war would have been prevented had Saddam turned over his weapons. Now that a country is liberated and a brutal dictator is gone, it’s easy for some Swedish guy to talk about the human cost. Somehow looting of government buildings and some revenge beatings are worse than totalitarianism. A favorite past time among progressives is to downplay the significance of living under a brutal dictator. It’s easy to do so from the safety and liberty of your free country.
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