posted on Aug, 6 2007 @ 09:39 AM
Realpolitik
Originally posted by Conundrum04
Saddam accuses some of the inspectors of being spies, kicks them out, and ends up being correct in doing so because they were, indeed, spies
imbedded.
Well, Saddam Hussein
never actually kicked the weapons inspectors out of Iraq. That's a bit of
coalition propaganda. It
is true that Saddam's people made it very difficult for the inspectors, and in particular Scott Ritter, to operate.
Ritter eventually resigned from UNSCOM, but he wasn't expelled by the Iraqi government.
The
Wikipedia article on the weapons inspections confirms this. By the
way, it is very informative and interesting. Well worth a read.
So was Saddam just supposed to let this happen?
If the Iraqis had found spies in UNSCOM, and managed to secure evidence of espionage, then they'd have been well justified in kicking the rascals
out. But in the event, no such evidence was presented; accusations and refusals to cooperate were made instead.
I expect there
was spying. The US and UK governments certainly had good reason to peek, and so did others. But the Iraqis must have known that
messing with UNSCOM would only have made things worse for them in the long run. So: was Saddam just supposed to let this happen? He certainly had good
reasons of
realpolitik for doing just that -- had he decided to. Instead, he chose to play ego games with his adversaries, and got crushed.