Wednesday, February 26, 2003

New Year's Resolution How many people have actually read United Nations Resolution 1441?

Probably not many.

However, because of the way the media have reported the events building up to war, most people think that Hans Blix and his team of weapons inspectors are over in Iraq to seek out weapons of mass destruction, when in fact, they're not - which is probably why they haven't found any yet.

Iraq have already been identified by the United Nations in Resolution 687 (in 1991) as remaining "in material breach of its obligations under relevant resolutions" with respect to the posession of weapons of mass destruction, and with particular reference to their failure to co-operate with the International Atomic Atomic Energy Agency.

The weapons inspectors are in Iraq to ensure the decleration, handover, disarmament and destruction of such weapons and their methods of proliferation, all of which have already been identified in previous 'resolutions'.

The media are also reporting of a "second draft resolution" that was submitted to the UN on Monday, when in fact, this is now the twelfth such ammendment to Resolution 687, now adopted as Resolution 1441.

The kind of reporting we are seeing and the subsequent public reaction is a direct result of mis-information and media hype. It could also be partly blamed on the government's failure to adequately explain the complex process we are currently witnessing.

The old saying "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" has never been better applied.

Read the full text of resolution 1441 for yourself, and better understand why you may, or may not be opposed to a war in Iraq.