"SADDAM WILL NEVER DISARM"

Those of you who liked today's pro-war New York Times op-ed coauthored by William Shawcross might also enjoy this Shawcross opinion piece from February 2003:

... the reality to remember is that Saddam will never voluntarily give up his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as resolution 1441 and 16 other resolutions demand. They are integral to his sense of his regime. His record shows that he considers no cost too high to retain his biological, chemical and whatever exists of his nuclear capability.

... WMD are tied into his sense of survival and his sense of destiny. He is brilliantly cunning at dividing his enemies. But he also makes spectacular misjudgments. He did not believe the allies would use force to throw him out of Kuwait. But he saw his own survival as a victory over his enemies. Equally victorious has been his campaign to keep his WMD for the 12 years.

... The inspectors may find some banned materials, by luck, perseverance and good intelligence -- and because Saddam has made cunning tactical concessions. They will never find the bulk of the illegal weapons. But that is not their job. That is to monitor his voluntary disarmament. He is not doing that and he never will. He is in clear breach of resolution 1441 and he always will be. The decision the world faces is: will we let him get away with it again? George Bush and Tony Blair say No. They are right.