Wednesday, September 18, 2002 |
10:08 - C'mon, guy. You need a rest! Put your feet up! I'd like you to meet my partner in evil, Satan!
http://www.denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/09/Verysnakey.shtml
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You know, if it's true that Saddam's recent letter to the UN was crafted as "snakily" as Den Beste describes it to have been, namely in that it claims to allow the inspectors to return to Iraq "without conditions"-- but says nothing about allowing the to inspect without conditions-- and that everything hinges upon what restrictions and demands will be revealed at the "practical arrangements" discussions that Iraq proposes... and if it's the case that, as Den Beste also (earlier, before the letter) said, "Either he'll make some sort of half-way offer which will be refused immediately, or he'll actually agree to permit the inspectors to return with only slight conditions. If it's the latter, then I will be afraid, for it will mean he thinks he's within a few months of success [at realizing his nuclear program]"... well, then I'm afraid too.
One possibility is that the letter was just shakily written, and that Iraq does in fact intend to let the inspectors run willy-nilly over the country, including the Presidential Palaces and everywhere.
But another, more likely possibility seems to be that it's another delaying tactic-- intended only to last for a very short time.
After all, how long does Iraq hope to have before the "practical arrangements" discussions? How long before the inspectors go back in and find their way to the palaces barred and guards firing rifles over their heads at biochem plants? How long until everybody catches Saddam red-handed in a baldfaced lie, in other words?
For him to gamble that heavily with world opinion, and with the countries which seem to have made a doctrine out of treating Saddam's offers as genuine and assuming that he won't lie... well, it means that he might well have surprises to unveil on the order of weeks from now.
Let 'em come, he says. By the time they discover I was lying, it'll be too late for "inspectors" to do a thing about it.
Lemme put it this way: This is one case in which I hope Den Beste is wrong.
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