Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=01/31/2003

TYPE=ON THE LINE SHORT #1

NUMBER=1-01271

TITLE=COALITION OF THE WILLING

INTERNET=Yes

EDITOR=OFFICE OF POLICY 619-0037

CONTENT=INSERTS IN DALET AND AUDIO SERVICES

THEME: UP, HOLD UNDER AND FADE

Host: This is On the Line and I'm -------. United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix reports Iraq is not living up to its obligations under U-N Security Council Resolution 1-4-4-1. The resolution requires the regime of Saddam Hussein to ensure that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction. While the U-S still hopes for a peaceful solution, Secretary of State Colin Powell says, "Iraq's time for choosing peaceful disarmament is fast coming to an end." Some other members of the U-N Security Council, notably France, are saying that military force should not be used against Iraq.

Max Boot is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He points out that France was directly involved in negotiating U-N Resolution 1-4-4-1.

Boot: "After it was passed unanimously by the Security Council, the French seem to be disregarding the actual wording of this resolution, which is quite clear in that it says this is a last chance for Iraq to disarm. That's the wording that France agreed upon and yet now, when Hans Blix comes forward to say Iraq is not in fact disarming, the French response is: 'Well, did we say last chance? We don't really mean it. Let's give them another year or two. Let's give them another chance and another chance after that.' "

Host: Reginald Dale is editor of European Affairs magazine. He says that France does not speak for all of Europe.

Dale: "Europe itself is very split on this and you do have, in the American camp, along with Britain, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark and maybe, in fact certainly, a lot of the countries that are just joining the European Union in Central and Eastern Europe. So I think it's wrong to put the focus entirely on France."

John Barry is national security correspondent for Newsweek magazine. He says the U.S. will be able to get many European countries to join in taking military action against Iraq, regardless of what happens at the U-N.

Barry: "If it becomes clear that there are simply immovable forces of obstruction at the Security Council, whether it's France or whether it's Russia, then it seems to me that as in Kosovo, the Europeans will act without a Security Council mandate. I mean, that was the first time they'd done that. And so I think yes, you will get the Europeans going along and I think, as I say, they will do that without a Security Council resolution but it will take a further U-S effort."

Host: Observers say other countries -- among them Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, and Kuwait -- can also be counted on to join in the effort against Iraq. For On the Line, I'm ------.