This Crooked Timber post, by John Quiggin, must be quoted in full:
In the middle of a generally reasonable Newsweek article about the failure to find WMDs, I came across the following para
But if Saddam didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, why didn’t he come clean? After all, he could have given U.N. inspectors free rein; he could have allowed them to interview all of his scientists in private—even outside the country—and let them rummage through his palaces. Faced with war, wasn’t that the sensible option?
But, but …(lapses into stunned silence)
It goes to the age-old problem of assuming that a different culture sees the world through our lens (or keyhole) and therefore reacts as we do.
The Administration could have consulted so many available experts who knew how to see the world through Iraqi eyes, who actually understood the history, culture and politics of the political Irish stew called Iraq, who would have advised better courses of action. Viet Nam encore. Sad.
Khaki Snat,
I think the point of Amp’s not commenting, and John Quiggin’s stunned silence, is that Saddam Hussein did everything that the article implies that he didn’t do.
PDP:
We have no disagreement, the three of us. Too bad that we can’t talk and find accord and wisdom in cheerful discourse.
Congratulations for your wise, quirky and informative blog.
Cheers, Bob
I’m puzzled, myself. Hussein certainly didn’t let his scientists be interviewed outside the country (also, bringing their families outside the country would obviously be equally essential), and didn’t let inspectors rummage through his palaces. So that explanation can’t be what either Quiggins or Amptoons have in mind.
Gary, please explain the following articles:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2660201.stm:
United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq have searched a second of President Saddam Hussein’s palaces. The experts were granted immediate access to the Republican Palace in Baghdad, where the Iraqi leader maintains his main office.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0212270326dec27,1,6120073.story:
Iraq’s top liaison with UN weapons inspectors said Thursday that scientists tapped for private questioning outside of Iraq were free to leave the country–although Iraq saw “no need” for secretive interviews.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0731-03.htm:
Some scientists have been arrested and held for months, others have made deals in return for information and at least one has agreed to be interviewed outside Iraq. No matter the circumstances, all of the scientists interviewed have denied that Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program or developed and hidden chemical or biological weapons since United Nations inspectors left in 1998.
K- I’m afraid that I don’t understand your comment. Could you explain what you mean?
Even if what the Newsweek paragraph said was true (and, duh, it’s not), it’s still stupid. Would we Americans allow a historically hostile enemy—one who had only recently been a tolerant ally—unfettered access to all of our weapons research labs, especially if we knew there was nothing to find in the first place?
The Newsweek para is an oft parroted line that one can find all across the polichat shows. It’s disinformation. It’s the Big Lie. And it does double duty: to reenforce a falsehood while unconsciously reenforcing the US govt’s right to do whatever it pleases, its imperial prerogative.