A BRITISH COMPROMISE?

Two British papers – the Guardian and the Times – are reporting that Britain may attempt to produce a different version of proposed Resolution 1442 than the simple one now envisaged. 1442 would actually delay war for yet another two weeks – until March 30 – with a clear deadline for complete Iraqi disarmament. Blair hopes, it is alleged, to win over a few waverers on the Security Council to get a majority. It’s also argued that the Turkish balk has delayed the military timetable, so the extra two weeks don’t amount to much. The problem with this approach is that it presumes reasonableness on the part of the Franco-German-Russian axis. But what Saddam has shown – rather brilliantly – is that even the slightest concession from Baghdad is enough for the appeasers to claim that the “inspections” are “working” (even though 1441 doesn’t stipulate that the inspections should have any effect except verifying Saddam’s complete and immediate disarmament). There is in principle nothing to stop this process from going on for ever. De Villepin has claimed that inspections cannot go on for ever, but has never proposed an end-date, or even a simple criterion by which one could measure whether they had failed. The truth is, I fear, that France, Russia and Germany simply want to keep Saddam in power and to humiliate the United States in order to build their own relationship with the Arab satrapies and pursue their own priorities in the region. If that’s their game, no compromise will satisfy them, whatever the British think. So let them veto.