Whatever It Takes to Get Compliance : Iraq’s suspected nuclear capability must be dismantled

Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, U.N. inspectors and the U.S. government all believe, on the basis of powerful evidence, that Iraq is trying to conceal those parts of its nuclear weapons program that survived American bombing last January. Now President Saddam Hussein promises that Iraqi cooperation with international inspectors will be the new order of the day. Is this yet another effort at deception, or is it a prudent move to defuse a growing crisis? The next few days should bring a clear answer.

The attempted nuclear concealment aims at evading U.N. Security Council Resolution 687, which requires Iraq to destroy or surrender all of its unconventional-warfare materials and weapons. The Security Council has been meeting behind closed doors to fashion a response to Hussein’s contemptuous defiance of the expressed international will. The United States meanwhile has begun to talk publicly about using military options, if necessary, to destroy what Iraq refuses to give up.

CHALLENGE: No effort is being made to minimize the seriousness of the Iraqi challenge. Resolution 687 exists because Iraq’s technical capabilities in the unconventional-weapons field, along with the still vigorous political ambitions of its dictator, are rightly seen as continuing to threaten regional peace and stability. The coalition formed to repel Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait didn’t succeed in forcing Hussein from power. But it was agreed in the war’s aftermath that Iraq should not be left in a position where it could again act to imperil the security of its neighbors. To that end Iraq was required to abandon its nuclear, chemical and biological warfare efforts and to give up the missiles that could carry these terror weapons to nearby countries.

There has been nothing subtle in Iraq’s efforts to deceive. International inspectors have been prevented from entering facilities identified by an Iraqi defector and through satellite reconnaissance as sites where nuclear materials and equipment have been hidden. On Friday, Iraqi guards fired shots into the air to try to stop U.N. officials from photographing a suspected nuclear site.

But even in the face of Iraqi impediments, international inspectors have been able to observe hurried efforts to relocate nuclear equipment. The unmistakable inference to be drawn from what has been seen, and from what interfering Iraqi officials have refused to let be seen, is that Iraq is gambling it can clandestinely maintain a nuclear program. In time that could produce the weapons that would allow Hussein to claim paramountcy in the Arab world. That is one possible outcome--and the least palatable--of the current challenge. A second--the most desirable--is that Iraq will in fact realize that it can’t sustain its duplicity and will yield to the imperative to surrender or destroy its unconventional arsenals. A third possibility--and it grows stronger each day that Iraq’s deceptiveness continues--is that military action will be taken to wipe out what earlier air raids missed.

RESPONSES: The United States still has plenty of power in the area for such a mission. So does Israel, which warned many times when it was under unprovoked attack from Iraq’s Scud missiles that it would respond at a time and in a manner of its own choosing.

Hussein might well greet an Israeli attack as a political deliverance, something that would force even his Arab enemies to rally to his side. That’s a good reason not to provide Israel with an excuse to strike. And that leaves the United States as the only other power with the military means in the area to enforce Resolution 687. President Bush has started to use the same tough anti-Hussein rhetoric he used before January’s air war began. If there is any wisdom left in Baghdad--any common sense--that message will be heeded.