Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=03/04/2003

TYPE=ON THE LINE

NUMBER=1-01287

TITLE=IRAQ'S FINAL CHANCE? SHORT #1

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 -----------. "The Iraqi regime is not disarming as required by last fall's unanimous vote of the [United Nations] Security Council," President George W. Bush said. "One way or another," he said, "Saddam Hussein will be disarmed." A final U-N resolution proposed by the U-S, Britain and Spain is seen as a stamp of approval for a war to disarm Iraq, but it is meeting continued resistance from France, Russia, and other nations.

Joshua Muravchik is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He says that despite resistance at the United Nations, he would be surprised if the U.S. and its allies failed to follow through and disarm Saddam Hussein.

Muravchik: I can't recall any time in which a U.S. administration has given such strong indications of what it intends to do starting with the president in the strongest words and then going through his top officials -- including officials who were thought to dissent from the policy, like Secretary of State Powell. They're all putting out the same message. And for them to turn around and back down from it at the last minute would be really stunning.

Host: Peter Beinart is editor of the New Republic magazine. He says that some at the U.N. are more interested in reining in the United States than in eliminating the threat posed by Iraq.

Beinart: This [prospective] war represents both an affirmation and an extension of American power in the post-Cold War world, in which there is only one superpower. The countries that are opposed to this are worried about the extension of American power further into a new region of the world which traditionally hasn't been a basis of American power. Much of this debate is really not about Iraq as much as it is about American power.

Host: But Peter Beinart says that without the threat of American military power Saddam Hussein would ignore U-N demands altogether.

Beinart: Saddam Hussein only acquiesces to inspections when a gun is to his head. And all his past behavior suggests that the minute the gun of American military force is no longer there, he will go back to doing exactly what he did in the 1990s, which is stonewalling.

Host: With or without a new U.N. resolution, Joshua Muravchik and Peter Beinart expect the United States and its allies will act to diarm against Saddam Hussein. For On the Line, I'm -------------.