Posted on 02/11/2003 10:00:21 PM PST by Republican_Strategist
Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, will today soften up British public opinion for war in the Gulf by making a direct link for the first time between Iraq and terrorist groups such as al-Qaida. His assertion comes at the start of a week that will see preparations for war intensify. The defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, is to end months of speculation by informing the Commons this week of the mobilisation of British forces. In a speech to British ambassadors in London this morning, Mr Straw will claim that terrorist groups such as Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida and rogue states such as Iraq are "part of the same picture". Despite determined efforts by the US administration since September 11, the CIA and other intelligence services have failed to find any connection between al-Qaida or any other terrorist group and the Iraqi president, Saddam Hus sein. But Mr Straw will say that terrorist groups could in future secure biological, chemical or nuclear weapons from rogue states. "The most likely sources of technology and know-how for such terrorist organisations are rogue regimes which continue to flout their obligations under international law not to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons," he will tell the ambassadors. "This is why terrorism and rogue regimes are part of the same picture. Our immediate aim must be to disrupt and eliminate terrorist groups which might attempt to acquire WMD [weapons of mass destruction]. But we will also have to deter and remove the threat posed by hostile or unstable states which possess or are pursuing WMD." Iraq claims it no longer has weapons of mass destruction and UN inspectors have failed to find any since returning to the country late last year. Mr Straw will say that Iraq is a litmus test of the world's determination to hold states to their non-proliferation commitments. "Iraqi disarmament - whether it is achieved by peaceful means or by force - is essential both for the world's capacity to deal with the threat presented by WMD and for the authority of the UN." Later in the week, Mr Hoon is to make a statement to the Commons, announcing that up to 7,000 reservists, including medics, are to be mobilised, along with thousands of full-time service personnel. The force will be ready to fight within six to eight weeks, though servicemen have been warned they could be in the Gulf for nine months or more. The Nobel peace prizewinner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, criticised Tony Blair for his "mind-boggling" support of the US. "Many, many of us are deeply saddened to see the United States aided and abetted extraordinarily by Britain," he said.
The Guardian tosses this line off, as if to dismiss the notion that Iraq could conceivably have any chemical or biological agents.
But the point is:
1. We (and the inspectors) know they had them.
2. They can provide no proof these weapons have been destroyed.
The burden of proof is on Iraq.
Let's say an editor of the Guardian knew their rebellious and somewhat vicious adolescent boy had purchased a pet cobra. But the boy blandly insisted he did not have a pet snake. After a quick search of his bedroom failed to turn up the cobra, would the editor say, "O.K., you won this game of hide and seek...but don't ever let me find that cobra outside your room"?
The left's attitude in this affair is just unbelievably obtuse...
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