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“By
emphasizing disarmament at the expense of terror, the prime
minister raises awkward questions: why single out Iraq?”
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LONDON,
September 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Most British newspapers
said Wednesday, September 25, that Prime Minister Tony Blair had failed
to make a convincing case that urgent military action was needed against
Iraq over its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
Presenting
a long-awaited dossier on Iraq, Blair told parliament Tuesday, September
24, that President Saddam Hussein may be only a year or two away from
possessing a nuclear bomb, and has “military plans” for the use of
chemical and biological weapons – “deployable within 45 minutes of
an order to use them,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
Financial Times said the government dossier offered no compelling
evidence that immediate military action was needed.
“Nor
does it present a strong argument against a policy of enhanced
containment. Its strongest impact might be in reinforcing the case for a
U.N. resolution that requires aggressive inspections”, the business
daily said.
The
Independent said that Saddam’s ability to produce some weapons of mass
destruction was not in doubt.
“What
must be doubted is whether he currently has the mentality and motive to
use them against the West, or against the West’s allies and friends.
“Without
evidence to suggest that he does, the case for unilateral military
action against Iraq collapses. And it is on these points that both the
dossier and Tony Blair’s statements in the House of Commons were
weakest.”
The
right-wing Daily Mail said that Blair’s performance before the House
of Commons was convincing, but added: “What the public and an
increasing number of military experts remain to be persuaded about is
the supposed need for a pre-emptive campaign against him rather than a
continuation of the containment that has held him in check these past 10
years.”
“No”
was the front page headline of the left-of-center Mirror tabloid, which
asked if Blair had proved a case for an attack on Iraq.
There
was not enough evidence “to convince us that we are wrong to believe
that a lot can be done before the last desperate resort is reached and
the bombers and the troops are sent in.”
The
conservative Times daily said: “The dossier released yesterday by
Downing Street did not contain a ‘silver bullet’ which would
convince the entire country that Iraq must be confronted.
“Tony
Blair’s document did, however, provide the government with additional
ammunition. It made a credible case that Iraq has intensified its
illegal activities in the past four years, a serious step change that
other reports had not outlined.”
However,
the right-wing Sun tabloid urged the international community to “stand
up for itself, uphold the authority of the U.N., and do what it takes to
disarm and dislodge Saddam.”
The
paper’s political editor Trevor Kavanagh said: “Anyone who has heard
him (Blair) speak, listened to President George Bush at the U.N., or
read the intelligence dossier... can be left with only one question.
“It
is not: Why Saddam? Or what next? It is why on earth it has taken so
long for the U.N., and the so-called international community, to
confront this appalling mass murderer.”
The
conservative Daily Telegraph said that the impulse for confronting
Saddam was the “unprecedented attack on America in September last
year, an atrocity which led George W. Bush to declare global war on
terrorists and the regimes which sponsor them.”
Yet
Blair’s comments mentioned terror only in connection with the
Palestinians, the paper said.
“By
emphasizing disarmament at the expense of terror, the prime minister
raises awkward questions: why single out Iraq, for example, and ignore
the much more volatile situation on the Indian subcontinent?”
