I’ve got to say that one of the most eye-opening things about this UN kabuki dance has been how it has highlighted the differences between the editorial pages of The Washington Post and The New York Times. Let’s, as they say, compare and contrast.
The first paragraph from The Washington Post editorial headlined “No More Last Chances”:
The vital point of the presentations by Iraq arms inspectors to the United Nations Security Council yesterday came at the beginning. “The fundamental aim of inspections in Iraq has always been to verify disarmament,” said chief weapons inspector Hans Blix. But Iraq, he said, “appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament which was demanded of it.” Mr. Blix went on to present, in a deliberately understated way, a devastating catalogue of lies, omissions and obfuscations by Iraq in the 21/2 months since the council passed Resolution 1441, which was meant to give Saddam Hussein “a final opportunity” to give up weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of nuclear inspections, made it clear that Iraq did not embrace that chance. Yet the two men dodged the obvious question their reports raised: If Saddam Hussein did not accept voluntary disarmament, what purpose could be served by the continued inspections they both advocate?
The First paragraph from The New York Times editorial:
The mixed report on Iraqi weapons compliance presented yesterday by the United Nations’ two chief weapons inspectors begins an intense week of diplomacy and decision-making on the next steps in the international campaign to disarm Saddam Hussein. Their findings argue strongly for giving the inspectors more time to pursue their efforts and satisfy international opinion that every reasonable step has been taken to solve this problem peacefully. As President Bush has repeatedly said, war, if it comes to that, must be a last resort.