A week of expectations met

By Mark Alexander · Friday, November 22, 2002

This was a week of expectations met. United Nations weapons inspectors arrived in Iraq Monday to begin discussions over suspected WMD site examinations slated for next week. As expected, the Iraqi despot regime first pledged full cooperation with the UN resolution, including access to sites, reporting on WMD-related programs and meeting schedule deadlines -- and then declared the Iraqi government possesses no such weapons, and set restrictions on the inspections.

President George W. Bush, in Prague for NATO meetings, shot back immediately: "Saddam Hussein has been given a very short time to declare completely and truthfully his arsenal of terror. Should he again deny that this arsenal exists, he will have entered his final stage with a lie. America's goal, the world's goal, is more than the return of inspectors to Iraq. Our goal is to secure the peace through the comprehensive and verified disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Voluntarily, or by force, that goal will be achieved."

Mr. Bush made clear that he expects the NATO alliance to be the core of any future coalition tasked with the military confrontation of Iraq, and the U.S. has already begun to ask Britain and other countries to quantify previous pledges of military support. The total number of nations joined in a coalition against Iraq, administration officials report, could be as many as 52.

Also as expected, Iraq is hitting back wherever possible -- firing repeatedly this week on U.S. and British planes patrolling the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reiterated that the anti-aircraft missile and artillery fire constitutes a "material breach" of UN resolutions -- and we would add, clear acts of war. Rumsfeld promised, "You can be absolutely certain we'll not allow our aircraft to continue to be shot at with impunity. We intend to respond."

On the front with Jihadistan, White House spokesman Scott McClellan confirmed this week two conclusions we provided last week on the basis of information from our technical and linguistic sources at Langley and Fort Meade. The tape of Osama's voice was legitimate and, according to McClellan, "It is clear that the tape was made in the last several weeks."

Disgruntled Senate loser Tom Daschle quickly politicized this news: "I think we have to question whether or not we're winning the war. We haven't found bin Laden. We haven't made any real progress in many of the other areas involving the key elements of al-Qa'ida. They continue to be as great a threat today as they were a year and a half ago."

But Team Bush advisers really need not worry so much about getting Osama "dead or alive," in President Bush's words a year back. Our fighting forces are scooping up al-Qa'ida lieutenants at a good pace. Moreover, U.S. citizens, as their voting choices demonstrate, understand that Saddam and Osama are twin heads on the Jihadi terror monster -- and success in the war with Jihadistan is measured in disrupting attacks, not scalps collected. And, as President Bush has noted repeatedly, "If Osama is dead, we got him -- if not, we'll get him!"