from: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0427pimentel27.html

Better find those WMDs in Iraq

O. Ricardo Pimentel
Republic columnist
Apr. 27, 2003 12:00 AM

United Nations inspectors should be allowed to return to Iraq to hunt for weapons of mass destruction.

This is as plain as the nose on President Bush's face. It is that plain because Bush's nose is one that the rest of the world believes to be of the prevaricating Pinocchio variety.

But let's be plainer still.

If no WMDs are found, Bush, along with Powell, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Blair, will be confirmed to the world as liars. And, yes, the world will take glee in pronouncing this.

Such a conclusion by the world will diminish much of the goodwill we have generated by liberating the Iraqis from Saddam. It will taint all we touch in the Mideast. It will render suspect any move we make to establish democracy in Iraq.

Even if WMDs are found by any of the hundreds of American inspectors we are about to dispatch to Iraq, Bush, et al, will still, to the world, be liars.

We will not be able to count the number of times the world will throw in our face Ronald Reagan's caution, said of an untrustworthy superpower of another time: "Trust but verify."

And if U.N. inspectors don't make the finds, even verification after the fact will be suspect. In other words, if we find none we are liars. If we find some or a lot, we will still be liars.

U.N. inspectors must find them. And even those who opposed this war should be feverishly wishing that they do.

Simply, the absence of WMDs deals a staggering blow to U.S. prestige, credibility and image for years to come. It means that the major reason we gave for war simply wasn't true.

And the fallout from this is not worth any amount of satisfaction anyone could possibly derive from, Je te l'avais dit - or, I told you so.

In the eyes of the world, we will be the new "evil empire," willing to do anything and say anything to achieve whatever strategic interests we deem worthy.

The shoot-first, find-evidence-later crowd, of course, is pretty much OK if the rest of the world believes we have cooties. These are the guys who believe that being the biggest and the baddest is never having to say "I'm sorry," much less, "Oops." They believe being the superpower means that, if its own people can be made to believe that war is peace and that killing innocents to save them is a worthwhile tactic, that's all that counts. The rest of the world be damned.

And we can be assured that the Bush administration, riding high in the popularity polls, is by now supremely confident of our limitless perception here at home that "they" hate us because "they" are jealous.

Sorry. As I heard one radio commentator remark recently, hatred for Americans is not in Arab or European DNA. It's the policy, stupid.

And in the context of Iraq, it's the policy whether we're talking about inspections or the related topic of Iraqi reconstruction. Unfortunately, all these issues are now inextricably tied to whether our image will ultimately be one of liberator or looter.

Reconstruction contracts going to politically connected U.S. firms via quasi-secret bidding is as damaging to our credibility as barring U.N. inspectors.

It's difficult to know which is more unseemly: our contention that it was our blood, so it's our booty, or the world's acknowledgement that it was our blood but, if we want the world to help in reconstruction, we have to ante up a major share of the booty.

Both notions have, at their core, cold mercenary hearts.

Both are inane arguments, but the world has got it more pragmatically right. We went in virtually unilaterally, but we need the world for reconstruction and inspections with results that will be believed, so as not to become the sole occupiers in a country in which we appear to be already wearing out our welcome.

It's good that France belatedly agreed with the United States that U.N. sanctions should be lifted so that Iraqis can eat and recover. Russian insistence that the sanctions shouldn't be lifted until inspectors verify Iraq is clear of WMDs is clearly a ruse. It just wants to hold sanctions hostage for a piece of the action.

But it's a toss-up which will be worse for us in future international affairs: the perception that we are greedy or that we are not just greedy but liars, too.

One way to head this off is to let the world help in the healing. That's what reconstruction is. Healing.

Let it begin with the inspectors.

Reach Pimentel at ricardo.pimentel@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8210. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

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