Sofia wrote:Inspectors were stopped at the gates of facilities they were trying to evaluate; Saddam threatened his scientists against speaking to UNMOVIC representatives, and then said they had to do so with Iraqi 'proctors' standing by (see: death threat); inspectors were spied on and had their rooms bugged... Saddam only allowed what he did, because of Bush's military presence in the Gulf--and he was actively working to thwart open inspections.
I won't forget the Iraqi scientist, who was dragged screaming from an inspectors vehicle, and never seen again.
That is not compliance.
Far from it, and as we continue to go round in circles, the intention of Saddam was to continue to keep the 'BEWARE OF DOG' sign up, continue his defiance. The bottom line is still something more had to be done, as in actions other than the intimidation and threats to the inspectors. A few more months wouldn't have changed Saddam's defiant behavior, he was filled with to much resentment, and he was skimming all that money off the deal. He had absolutely no incentive to change his modus operendi.
The Kay Report isn't going to change a thing, unless it documents actual WMD's found postwar, anything short of that comes back to Saddam's pretending to have something he didn't. Too bad he took that stance or things might not have escalated tot this point.
He did fire a couple of SCUD's just after we attacked which he wasn't suppose to have, the inspectors may have found these, maybe not:
The uncertainty surrounding Iraq's potentially deadly arsenal led U.S. and British troops as well as Kuwaiti citizens to pull out their gas masks and protective suits when air raid sirens alerted them that missiles were incoming.
Kuwaiti officials said the first two were Scuds, similar to the ones the Iraqis fired in the 1991 Gulf War.
The Pentagon described the two as "tactical ballistic missiles" that were intercepted and destroyed by the PAC-3 ?- the latest Patriot anti-missile system.
A third missile, described by Kuwaiti military officials as an Iraqi Al Samoud, broke in two and fell near the Kuwaiti border.
Iraq told U.N. inspectors in its December weapons declaration that it no longer had the Scud missiles it used against Iran in the 1980s and against Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.
At the end of that war, weapons inspectors accounted for all but two Scuds the Iraqis claimed it had. But the inspectors believed Iraq could have been hiding more of the long-range missiles, U.N. officials said.
Scuds have an average range of 188 miles, and the Iraqis also modified some to fly up to 375 miles.
U.N. resolutions passed after the Gulf War banned Iraq from having chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that flew more than 93 miles.
As our attack commenced he could have surrendered, but no, defiant to the very end which proves to me the inspectors or the UN were never going to resolve anything.
