Mark Phillips: The American Question

8/1/03: Inspections, scientists, and national sovereignty.

From: mark@trouble-tickets.org
Sent: Friday, Aug 01, 2003 5:32 PM
To: dispatches@nytimes.com
Subject: Inspections, scientists, and national sovereignty.

Greetings Mr. Gordon:

Your interesting Dispatches column dated 8/1 poses two questions which I think might be answered as simply as the "bold and entirely plausible theory" you discuss. The two questions are, 1) Why did Iraq only grudgingly accede to inspections under the threat of military invasion if it had nothing to hide? 2) And why did it restrict access to its weapons scientists?

I think it's possible to answer both of these questions very simply by putting aside for a moment our images of Saddam the Monster. This is not to suggest that Saddam isn't a monster, rather that putting the picture to one side helps answer the questions in a reasonable way. If we think instead in terms of what any responsible national government would do, I believe the most probable answers might be, 1) Because inspections were perceived as infringements of national sovereignty, and 2) Because any responsible government restricts access to its weapons scientists.

It's not difficult to imagine how an American government would respond to foreign demands to physically inspect our own military's once-upon-a-time chemical and biological weapons facilities, or our current infrastructure of nuclear weapons; or to interview American weapons scientists re these top-secret programs. It would be more difficult to imagine a government -- any government, anywhere -- which would cooperate with those demands in an enthusiastic way. This is in the nature of what governments do, in a world of sovereign nations. We would consider our own leaders profoundly remiss if they were to act differently. Would the Iraqi people expect something different of theirs?

I do think Saddam is a monster. I feel so strongly about this that I actually believe it was a mistake for previous administrations to support his consolidation of power and acquisition of chemical and other weapons of mass destruction. Yet I think it's likely that in resisting inspections his government behaved in the same way any other government would, including our own, for reasons which I think are really pretty obvious.

Thanks again for your very interesting column.

--Mark Phillips
Pacfica, CA

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