Is The Countdown About To Begin?

MILIYET- Columnist Sami Kohen comments on recent developments regarding the Iraq issue. A summary of his column is as follows:
The Bush administration has opened its plan to carry out a military operation against Iraq for discussion in the international community. US President Bush has recently intensified his efforts to win international support for ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and discussed his Iraq strategy with US congressional leaders and his allies as well as Russia and China. However, that doesn’t mean that Bush is prepared to abandon his plans for Iraq if he doesn’t receive international support. Both Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell’s recent remarks on the issue show clearly that the US wouldn’t hesitate to launch a military strike on its own. We can even say that clock is ticking on Iraq and that the countdown for a US operation is about to begin.
Although Bush says that he hasn’t yet made a decision on the issue, his ambition to topple Saddam is well known, as is his view that doing so would take care of his father’s ‘unfinished business’ from a decade ago.
However, the international community remains unpersuaded by the arguments and claims of the Bush administration. According to Bush and his staff, the most important reason to carry out a military strike against Saddam is the Iraqi leader’s drive to acquire weapons of mass destruction and attempts to develop nuclear weapons. The Bush administration considers these developments a great threat to both the US and world peace in general. In fact, not only the US but also many other countries are concerned about Iraq’s capabilities. However, as we all know, Iraq isn’t the only country which has acquired such weapons but Bush is somehow obsessed with the idea that Saddam constitutes the greatest threat to world peace. If the US launches a military operation in Iraq then Saddam will probably use these weapons out of desperation, and this would be a true catastrophe not only for the region but also for the entire world. The international community believes that rather of planning military action which would plunge the world into chaos and wreak irreparable damages, the Bush administration should instead step up its diplomatic efforts to persuade Saddam on this issue.
However, the problem here is that Saddam isn’t playing a fair game, and he has been very successful to date in hiding large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons from UN inspectors.
Nowadays, many countries ranging from Turkey to Russia are demanding that Iraq allow unfettered access to UN weapons inspectors and comply with the UN resolutions made in 1991 to rid the country of all weapons of mass destruction. The longer Iraq resists this international pressure, the more suspicions it arouses.
It’s clear that the only action capable of halting the countdown to a US operation can be taken by Iraq itself. Neither the international community nor the American people can possibly sway Bush as much as Saddam’s own words and promises.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION