Posted by
Randal Lee Manning Jr. on Thursday, November 02, 2006 9:14:49 PM
On October 31 the United Nations security council issued the 25th security resolution urging Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to allow U.N inspectors into the country's nuclear plants and strategic military sites. This is the eighth resolution issued by the council so far this year. Some politicians are questioning the effectiveness of the resolutions and are calling for military action if the Iraqi leader fails to comply with the most recent resolution. A Republican coalition consisting of 25 members of the senate and 200 members of the house of representatives issued a statement to President George Bush condemning him for not backing up the resolutions with at least the threat of military action. Even prominent Democratic Senator, John Kerry was quoted saying, "the entire world is laughing at us, we are in need of a President who is willing to stand up to Saddam Hussein and let him know that there will be severe consequences if the U.N resolutions are not complied with." The White House recently issued a press release stating that "while Saddam Hussein has not fully complied with any of the previous resolutions his attitude toward America seems to be improving and we are confident that with four or five more resolutions U.N inspectors will be allowed in requested sites for brief periods of inspection."
Meanwhile human rights groups are speaking up about the deteriorating social and medical conditions in Iraq. A recent study done by Human Rights Watch measured Iraq's children starvation rate to be among the highest death/child rates in the world. Iraq also measures among the worst in infant mortality, per capita income and availability of medical services. The group points to prolonged economic sanctions and embargoes on the country of Iraq. Rebecca Thompson of Human Rights Watch said "Saddam sits in his palaces and eats like a King while his people starve because of the unavailability of jobs due to a stagnant economy." Iraq's 2005 GDP reporting rank them the third poorest country in the world.
In a related story Iraq claims to have successfully launched scud missiles that are capable of reaching Israel. Their latest test marks the fifth this year. The tests have been confirmed by the USGS and experts speculate that the latest missile might have landed in a Northern Kurdish village of Iraq. When asked whether or not Iraq had the capability to deliver a nuclear payload to one of it's neighboring countries the director of the C.I.A Michael Hayden said, "conventional wisdom since 2002 said that Saddam has access to nuclear materials and that wisdom has not changed in the past four years." Due to other recent missile tests by Iran, North Korea, Libya and Syria some are growing increasingly concerned with the situation developing in the Middle East. Earlier this week Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton was quoted as saying, "this administration has consistently held to a policy of isolationism and the result of this policy has been disastrous. We are now facing a part of the world in the Middle East that is getting more volatile with every week that we opt to appease these countries. If we hope to regain civility in the Middle East we must turn to a drastic shift in policy." It remains unclear what the Bush administration will due to counter the growing threat but it seems clear that something must be done.
Courtesy of the New York Times, Wednesday November 2.
A world without the Iraqi invasion.