[goodolemr]

Looks like Fox News has caught Blix in a lie

[Cboldt]

I wouldn't characterize it as a Blix lie. Blix was saying "the" 24 hour timetable didn't pertain to every act. On that, he is right. 24 hours for Saddam to disarm. 24 hours for the Security Council to act decisively. But is is reasonable that actual disarament will take more than 24 hours, whetehe Saddam does it on his own (he won't) or somebody forces him to do it with force. So, 24 hours doesn't apply to every act, therefore the message was divided.

He put this in various forms, including the point that Bush and Blair talked about slightly different subjects. I didn't hear Blix say that the "24 hours for a commitment" message was not held by all of the participants. He was picking nits as to what the commitment contained.

More importanly, Blix really is irrelevant at this point. The players under the deadline are UNSC and Saddam. If UNSC is not forthcoming with a clear "disarm NOW" resolution, backed by force (it won't, France already promised a veto), diplomacy is over. Period.