Now then Bobert while we are talking about cherry-picking:

"What's the hurry" when Blix also stated in his report that the Iraqi's were ***cooperating*** in letting the inspectors inspect where ever they wanted..."

Here is what Dr Hans Blix said in his report relating to Iraqi co-operation, note Bobert these are his words not mine:

"I turn now, Mr. President, to the key requirement of cooperation and Iraq's response to it. Cooperation might be said to relate to both substance and process. It would appear from our experience so far that Iraq has DECIDED IN PRINCIPLE to provide cooperation on process, notably access. (NOTE: Decided in principle Bobert, he does not say that they have decided in fact, he does not say that they have decided in practice)

A similar decision is indispensable to provide cooperation on substance in order to bring the disarmament task to completion through the peaceful process of inspection and to bring the monitoring task on a firm course. (NOTE: What he is stating here is that co-operation in substance is totally lacking, the Iraqi's have not even decided in principle to provide any co-operation in substance - that Bobert represents a "material breach" of the terms and conditions of UN Resolution 1441)

On co-operation relating to substance Dr. Blix goes on:

"The substantive cooperation required relates above all to the obligation of Iraq to declare all programs of weapons of mass destruction and either to present items and activities for elimination or else to provide evidence supporting the conclusions that nothing proscribed remains.

Paragraph 9 of Resolution 1441 states that this cooperation shall be "active." IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO OPEN DOORS. INSPECTION IS NOT A GAME OF CATCH AS CATCH CAN. Rather, as I noted, it is a process of verification for the purpose of creating confidence. It is not built upon the premise of trust. Rather, it is designed to lead to trust, if there is both openness to the inspectors and action to present them with items to destroy or credible evidence about the absence of any such items."

The truth of the situation as of 27th January 2003 with regard to the 100% full, unstinting and pro-active co-operation required under the terms of 1441, was reported by Dr. Hans Blix as being somewhat less than 50%.

By the bye Bobert the question that you've asked over and over going back to the mad-dash-to-Iraq days and that is if you had so much distaste for Saddam why didn't you just have him killed???. Has been answered many, many times. You just don't like the answer, but seeing as you have asked I'll lay it out for you one more time. And this time you address that answer and tell me where I am wrong, or where the logic of my answer is at fault.

The assassination of Saddam Hussein would have accomplished nothing by way of improvement in the lives of the citizens of Iraq. It would accomplish nothing in terms of increasing the prospects of peace and stability in the region.

Why would it do neither of these things? Because the Ba'athist Regime and the Revolutionary Council would still be in power in Iraq with an unaltered agenda and Saddam would have been replaced by one of his sons, who believe it or not were a damn sight worse than their father.

Take your pick Bobert, who would you have preferred:

Uday Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti
- Eldest son of Saddam Hussein.
- He headed the Iraqi Olympic Committee. In this role he tortured athletes who failed to win. Uday had his bodyguard Mohammed Haroon executed in 1995 for not showing enough enthusiasm in torturing Iraqi journalists at the Iraqi Olympic Committee. Uday seemed proud of his reputation and called himself "abu sarhan", Arabic for "father of the wolf."
- He was the head of one of Saddam's security organizations
- He raped and murdered scores of young women across Iraq during his father's reign, although, presumably due to nepotism, he was never charged with or tried for such crimes.
- In October 1988, at a party in honor of Suzanne Mubarak, wife of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Uday murdered his father's personal valet and food taster, Kemal Hana Gegeo. Before an assemblage of horrified guests, Uday—intoxicated and in cold blood — bludgeoned Gegeo with a cane, reputedly administering the coup de grâce with an electric carving knife. Briefly imprisoned for this crime, Saddam released Uday, banishing him to Switzerland as the assistant to the Iraqi ambassador there. He was expelled by the Swiss government after he threatened to stab a person in a restaurant.

Qusay Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti
- The second son of Saddam Hussein.
- He was appointed as his father's heir apparent in 2000, so no doubt about my contention that one of his sons would have taken over.
- Head of the internal security forces and had some authority over the Iraqi Republican Guard and other Iraqi military units.
- Played a vital role in crushing the Shiite uprising in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War and is also thought to have masterminded the destruction of the southern marshes of Iraq. The wholesale destruction of these marshes was aimed against the Marsh Arabs, as retribution for their participation in the 1991 uprising.
- Responsible for the killing of many political activists. The Sunday Times (London) reported that Qusay Hussein ordered the killing of Khalis Mohsen al-Tikriti, an engineer at the military industrialization organization, because Qusay believed he was planning to leave Iraq. In 1998, Iraqi opposition groups accused Qusay Hussein of ordering the executions of thousands of political prisoners after hundreds of inmates were summarily executed to make room for new prisoners in crowded jails.

Another couple of facts that you might not really like to acknowledge Bobert:

- MNF troops are present in Iraq at the specific request of the Iraqi Government.
- MNF troops are present in Iraq under the terms of a legally constituted United Nations Security Council Mandate.
- The Governmentof Iraq was elected in free and fair elections by the population of Iraq 70% of those eligible to vote did so in spite of dire threats.
- No country is being occupied
- No hand-picked Government has been put in place.