Why didn't saddam allow unfettered inspections?

Hmmm... ever got yr house inspected by the IRS to search for money which you have not declared, hidden away ???

Maybe he was afraid that they would find out about his crazy taste in art?

It's a good question. Maybe it was just another way for him to get off on his power trip, or perhaps he knew that if the mass graves were found while he was in power that he would lose whatever aid or support that he had from other nations.

It will be interesting to see if Bush & Co. find any WMD's -- so far it isn't looking good for them. Anything is possible, though.

Gautam
If it meant I wouldn't have to go to jail or as in this case deposed I might object but there is no doubt I would comply. It's the lesser of two evils.

You are forgetting that Saddam did allow inspectors in ultimately. It is just that Bush and co were itching to go to war.....

Dunno whether you are aware of it or not, but there is a big discussion going on in the UK on the "doctoring" of Iraq dossier for making it skewed towards justification for a war !

Remember, inspectors wanted more time which they were not givem. Why should we now sit quiet and give more time to the occupation forces ????

Gautam


Yes, I am.

?

More time? Are you suggesting we now pull out of Iraq? What do you think will happen if we did? No, for whatever reason or supposed justification for our attack it would be unconscionable to now walk away.

I think Iraq pretty much did eventually allow "unfettered inspection."

It was late coming -- but in my opinion -- and in the opinion of many of the inspectors -- it did come.

A better question might be: Why doesn't George Dubya allow unfettered inspections now? Why is he keeping the UN inspectors out of Iraq?

au, One theory is that the top brass of Saddam's regime tried to hide the fact that Iraq had destroyed all their WMDs, after they instructed the military to destroy all of it after 1998. Whether that theory holds true will remain uncertain. Iraq has the land area of California. It's going to take more than several months to hunt down their WMDs if any exists. c.i.

IMO Saddam had ample reason to be wary of the fact that some hawks were saying the inspections were a waste of time. He might have concluded that they were worthless and that unfettered inspections could hurt him in a multitude of ways.

Some of those ways would include:

US intelligence
This time around the US said that the inspections would not be used for intel gathering.
Many people agree that in the past Saddam's accusations that the inspections served for intel gathering purposes for western governments had some merit.

IMO, Sadaam might have been worried that the inspections were not going to silence the war drums and that they would be used in the upcoming war and attempt on his life.

Casus Belli
The most obvious reason for Saddam to deny inspections is that they would trigger a war. If WMDs were found this would guarantee it but even without finding WMDs there are other finds that could have sped up the war.

I'd stop short of saying the demands for compliance on Saddam were unreasonable but a good case can be made that it appeared that war was inevitable.

I personally do not think any level of post 2000 cooperation on the part of Saddam would have deterred the war* and think that Saddam would be even more likely to feel this way.


* I can provide a large list of reasons that lead me to think that the demands for compliance were nothing more than a desire to make it appear that "the ball is in Saddam's court" while in my opinion he had no plays available to him other than exile and in that case the invasion would still have taken place (this is based on the words of US administration).

I don't think there is any question that you are right about this.