If Iraq had complied fully despite the bombing, maybe the US would have been forced to accept the lifting of the sanctions. That is indeed my guess. But it is also possible that the US would have been able to ensure that Iraq was never declared to be fully in compliance. And it doesn't change the point that US policy makes no sense if it is meant to be aimed at prioritising getting rid of Iraq's WMD. The official US policy objective of overthrowing Saddam represents non-compliance with the very UN resolutions with which Iraq is meant to comply. The leadership change agenda has fundamentally undermined the arms control agenda.
The dominant framing in coverage is very much a crisis of Iraqi WMD non-compliance. The reality is that the crisis is one of continuing US non-compliance and unwillingness to respond to Iraqi compliance with most of what has been asked of it. To put it bluntly, we are going to war on the basis of lies (some of the people making the argument for war now know what the truth is) and self-deception (some of them believe their own propaganda).
Dr. Eric Herring
Department of Politics
University of Bristol
Please also see "Power, Propaganda and Indifference", soon on the Medialens website http://www.medialens.org/.
Some very useful resources are
1. This which maps out accurately the extent to which Iraq
had its nuclear, biological and chemical weapon capability
eliminated:
http://www.arabmediawatch.com/iraq/mythwmdevidence.htm
2. This detailing the evidence (including UNSCOM's own
chronology) showing that the weapons inspectors were
withdrawn and were not expelled:
http://www.arabmediawatch.com/iraq/mythofunscom98.htm
Also of value is a recent (8th March) interview with Noam
Chomsky. The full text of the interview can be found on-line at
http://www.zmag.org/content/TerrorWar/agr_chomsky.cfm
The dominant framing in coverage is very much a crisis of Iraqi WMD non-compliance. The reality is that the crisis is one of continuing US non-compliance and unwillingness to respond to Iraqi compliance with most of what has been asked of it. To put it bluntly, we are going to war on the basis of lies (some of the people making the argument for war now know what the truth is) and self-deception (some of them believe their own propaganda).
Dr. Eric Herring
Department of Politics
University of Bristol
Please also see "Power, Propaganda and Indifference", soon on the Medialens website http://www.medialens.org/.
Some very useful resources are
1. This which maps out accurately the extent to which Iraq
had its nuclear, biological and chemical weapon capability
eliminated:
http://www.arabmediawatch.com/iraq/mythwmdevidence.htm
2. This detailing the evidence (including UNSCOM's own
chronology) showing that the weapons inspectors were
withdrawn and were not expelled:
http://www.arabmediawatch.com/iraq/mythofunscom98.htm
Also of value is a recent (8th March) interview with Noam
Chomsky. The full text of the interview can be found on-line at
http://www.zmag.org/content/TerrorWar/agr_chomsky.cfm