Adrift in the Gulf
John Bolton
Weekly Standard
March 23, 1998
Since the Baghdad deal between Saddam Hussein and U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan on February 23, analysts have waited to see how Iraq would treat U. N. weapons-inspection teams. The early results are in, and, unsurprisingly, the Iraqis have posed no major obstacles to inspectors. At least until some American military forces are withdrawn from the region or the United Nations stumbles onto a research, storage, or production site for weapons of mass destruction, the Iraqis will, on the surface, appear to comply with the deal.
The real action in the last three weeks, however, has been on the political and diplomatic fronts. There, in a shift little noticed in the United States, the initiative has moved away from Washington and toward those who oppose the use of force against Iraq, in particular the United Nations. Annan drove this point home on March 8 when he asserted, on the strength of nothing but his own opinion, that the United States "would be required" to consult with the Security Council before using force against Iraq. Just three days later, President Clinton bent his knee by saying, "Of course we would consult. It would be unthinkable that we wouldn't." Annan has also said unambiguously, " We should look down the horizon to post-crisis Iraq and see where we go from here."
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