U.S. and U.N. in IraqSince the gulf war the United States and the United Nations have had to be theinternational police for Iraq. The main cause is there cruel dictator Saddam Hussein. "SaddamHussein, the Iraqi dictator is a ruthless despot who has brought enormous misery on his ownpeople. It is a pity he remains in power..." (Finley 27). Now Iraq s latest insubordination has justbacked up the fact that they can not be trusted. The UN imposed economic sanctions on Iraq afterthere invasion of Kuwait in the Gulf War, Saddam is now violating the cease fire terms and theU.S. and U.N. must intervene in order to prevent a possible nuclear attack from Iraq. On August 2, 1990 Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. This was the start of the Gulf War.President Bush waited two days after the UN deadline for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait beforeordering the Coalition to begin action against Iraqi forces. The Winds of Desert Storm beganhowling across Iraq at 0230 hours Baghdad time. This is how President Bush announced the startof Desert Storm to the World. The Iraqi armed forces had extensive experience in warfare, sincethey had just brought an eight year war with Iran to a successful conclusion. The Coalition troops,on the other hand, were largely inexperienced. Britain had fought the Falklands War with marinesand paratroopers; this war was fought with tanks and mechanized infantry instead. The Syrianshad fought within the last decade in Lebanon, but the 9th Division had not been involved. TheEgyptians had last fought a war in 1973, shortly after the US had wound down its involvement inVietnam. Of the gulf states, only Omani Army had anything approaching extensive combatexperience. One reason that the Iraqis' experience did them little good was that it was the wrong Burdick 2 kind of experience. They had plenty of experience in fighting a positional war of wearing downIran forces. Instead of helping, this was a disadvantage when fighting a mobile campaign; they would have been better off starting fresh without a lot of bad habits, tactics they normally usedagainst Iran would not work against the U.N. Of Iraq's 545,000 troops in the Kuwait Theater ofOperations, about 100,000 are believed to have lost their lives. Of Iraq s 44 army divisions, 42were found to be combat ineffective. After the invasion of Kuwait the UN Security Council passed resolution 660 condemningthe invasion of Kuwait and demanding Iraq s unconditional withdrawal. When Iraq ignoredresolution 660 and several resolutions regarding the occupation of Kuwait the United Nationimposed economic sanctions which remain in force today. Under UN Security Council Resolutionwhich set out the cease-fire terms for ending the Gulf War, Iraq is obliged to: (a) accept thedestruction, removal, or rendering harmless of all its - nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons,and ballistic missiles with a range over 150 kilometers; and - research, development, andmanufacturing facilities associated with the above; and (b) undertake not to develop suchweapons in the future (Chemical 2). The United Nations Special Commission(UNSCOM)oversees these processes. Iraq must give full cooperation, in particular immediate,unrestricted access to any site UNSCOM needs to inspect. After seven years searching Iraq forweapons, inspectors for the United Nations have not found all the weapons in Iraq. Stocks ofIraqi germ and gas agents, hundreds of pieces of equipment, and missiles to deliver the lethalcargo remain unaccounted for. Intelligence agencies in America and Britain believe that Iraq's pastis prologue; having run an industrial-scale weapons program for years, it would take Iraq hardlyany time to rebuild one if U.N. inspectors were barred. Adapting fermenters to produce seedstocks of biological warfare agents, for example, takes only a few hours(Time 60).Iraq still hasthe expertise and many of the ingredients at hand for significant chemical and biological capability. Burdick 3 Saddam Hussein still possesses tons of chemical stocks despite the efforts of the U.N. SpecialCommission, or UNSCOM, which has found and destroyed 127,000 gallons of chemical agents. But inspectors cannot account for 600 tons of "precursor" chemicals that could be used tomanufacture 200 tons of VX, a nerve gas developed by the British in the 1950s(Warfare). Iraqclaims to have destroyed the more than 4 tons of VX it produced before the gulf war, but theU.N. cannot confirm this. The British Foreign Office asserts that hidden Iraqi reserves of VX

could conceivably kill everyone on the planet. The U.N. also cannot account for an additional4,000 tons of precursor chemicals that could be used to make hundreds of tons of chemicalagents, less efficient than VX but still deadly. UNSCOM knows even less about Iraq's biologicalweapons program, whose existence Baghdad did not acknowledge until August 1995. Iraq hassince admitted producing 19,000 liters of botulinus, 8,400 liters of anthrax, and 2,000liters ofaflatoxin but claims to have destroyed it all. Inhaling just 10,000 spores of anthrax, an amount thesize of a speck of dust, is fatal. Unlike the sophisticated components of a nuclear weaponsprogram, the labware needed for biological weapons research and production can be found in anycollege laboratory, hospital, or brewery(yahoo!). It is also extremely easy to conceal; the U.N.suspects Iraq has a mobile biological weapons facility. Some in the intelligence community believeIraq has hidden about two dozen missiles and mobile launchers that could be deployed on shortnotice. Others believe Iraq has buried key missile components, such as guidance systems andmotors, which it could use to rebuild its force over time. Clinton's critics propose to break the cycle of showdown with Saddam Hussein by trying,once and for all, to topple him. Sen. Robert Kerrey of Nebraska, who may seek the Democraticpresidential nomination in 2000, is calling for the administration to back the Iraqi opposition. Sen.Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, wants to brand Saddam a war criminal. Theadministration, too, is losing patience. "If it is clear that Saddam still is not complying, we will Burdick 4 look at our overall strategy," says a senior administration official, a hint that the administrationmight support more-aggressive efforts to oust Saddam. The CIA is reportedly working on a plan to subvert Saddam's regime, but the president has not yet authorized it. And given Saddam's trackrecord both for surviving in power and causing the United States trouble, Captain Deppe, theskipper of the USS Normandy, should keep his sea bag packed. Some may say that the U.N. and U.S. should not interfere with matters in the middle east.Stating that we should worry about our own problems and that involvement with Iraq will onlycost lives and money. If the United Nations were to lift economic sanction before the threat of abiological attack from Iraq was totally eliminated then Iraq could quickly rebuild its forces andstart another Gulf War. Even after sanctions are lifted monitoring of Iraq will probably be inforcedto make sure Iraq does not start producing anymore chemical or biological weapons. Since the recent conflict U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan narrowly averted U.S.airstrikes by negotiating an agreement for Iraq to open all of its so-called presidential sites to U.N.weapons inspectors. If Saddam sticks to that deal, the next collision is likely to be over economicsanctions.And the probable time frame is April, when the U.N. Security Council is scheduled toconsider whether to lift the tight embargo on Iraq. Saddam may also provoke small sideshows.For instance, during last year's Islamic hajj, or pilgrimage, he loaded civilians onto planes boundfor Mecca--and virtually dared American pilots patrolling his skies to shoot them down. And,finally, it would surprise no one if, six months from now, he again blocked U.N. inspectors fromtheir rounds. As a solution to the problem of Saddams control over Iraq I think the only outcomewould be to somehow end Saddams power or wait until he can no longer rule, which would takeseveral years. As an individual you could stage protests against Iraq or write letters to congress...but it probably wouldn t help. There isn t much you as a citizen can do to better this topic, it is up Burdick 5 to our government to handle this problem. I guess about all you can do is vote for the rightguy..... Burdick 6 The Residual Iraqi 'Scud' Force Jane's Intelligence Review, Vol. 7, No. 3, March 95:115 U.N. chief under no illusion about Saddam. 9:23 am PST 12 mar. 1998. http://www.mercurycenter.com/iraq/docs/057654.htm.(18 mar.1991) Diamond, John. washington rife with plots to topple Saddam. The Monterey County Herald 27 Feb.1998:7A. Yahoo! Full Coverage- Iraq Inspections-. Apr 4, 1998 http://headlines.yahoo.com/Full_Coverage/World/Iraq_U_S_/(8 Apr 1998.)