THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 18, 1995 TAG: 9507180012
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
After years of lies, evasions, bluster, noncompliance and hostility, Iraq has finally admitted it produced biological weapons in 1989-90. But don't worry, they've all been destroyed.
Right! This latest spasm of public-relations candor has the same motive as all the duplicity that preceded it: to get economic sanctions that were imposed after the Gulf War lifted. They are presently up for review by the United Nations
The same transparent desire to curry favor was behind Saddam's belated decision on Sunday to free two U.S. workers who strayed into Iraqi territory. He's been holding David Daliberti and William Barloon for four months on the implausible grounds that they were spies.
Some fools and enemies of order in the United Nations actually favor letting Saddam return to business as usual. But freeing prisoners he shouldn't have taken in the first place hardly makes Saddam a humanitarian. And admitting he was preparing to infect his neighbors with deadly diseases shouldn't win him the right to try again.
If Saddam lied about producing biological weapons, it's a reasonable assumption he's lying about the destruction of his stockpiles of botulism and anthrax. Furthermore, plants with the capacity to produce chemical weapons are said to be up and running.
When the Gulf War loomed, Margaret Thatcher admonished President Bush not to go all wobbly and let Saddam off the hook. It was good advice then and it's good advice still.
The United States must insist on minute verification of any claim that the now-admitted biological weapons no longer exist. The United Nations must be allowed to inspect sites, examine records and factories and generally subject Iraq to the most thorough scrutiny possible. The United States must also persuade its allies to cut any regime headed by Saddam Hussein not the slightest slack, even if that means continuing sanctions until he's no longer in power. If that hurts innocent Iraqis in the meantime, that's too bad. They have an alternative. Get rid of the tyrant.
Saddam Hussein is a menace not just to his countrymen but to neighbors. He's now admitted it. That's hardly a reason to give him the chance to become a threat again. On the contrary, his admission of guilt provides plenty of justification for regarding him with renewed suspicion. And it's a reminder that this is one issue on which President Clinton must lead without equivocation. by CNB