Hans Blix – from the horse's mouth

Last night, my father and I went to the History Museum to head Hans Blix speak. He was appointed by Kofi Annan as head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission in 2000 after serving as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 1981-1997.

His bio reads

As the world urged Saddam Hussein to disarm, Chief U.N. Weapons Inspector Hans Blix and his team–through on-site inspections–tried to determine if the Iraqi leader was complying. While the U.S. an dits allies pushed for justification for military action in iraq, and key opponents on the U.N. Security Council called for further inspections, Dr. Blix stood between the two, trying to fairly and impartially determine the true scope of iraq's weapons program.

Nuclear Disarmament
Dr. Blix spoke about Iraqi, but the thrust of his lecture asserted that nuclear disarmament is a realistic goal. It is possible for a couple of reasons:

1. Countries are more interdependent than ever
2. The world has seen the risk of incorrect intelligence
3. War is terribly expensive
4. There is no threat of war among world superpowers

In order to achieve nuclear disarmament, he asserts, the world must do the following:

1. Assure nations' security so that they do not feel threatened. When the U.S. says "All options are on the table," countries like N. Korea feel they must prepare themselves for "all options." Thus, they determine a need for nuclear weapons for self defense.
2. Leave regime change to local populations. While we may abhor N. Korea's authoritarian control on its people, it is up to the people to revolt. The threat of invasion makes nations feel insecure. The Republic of Guinea is an example of a country who has recently seen the people demand a change in government leadership.
3. Make rogue states a part of the international community rather than alienating them. He cited Vietnam and China as governments who kept their communism, but developed and became a part of the global community.

Most Interesting Points
I am trying to keep this short, so I'll discuss four of his most interesting points.

• He said before the U.S. invaded, International Community know the document illustrating Iraqi's effort to import Uranium from Nigeria was a forgery. He said this was "common knowledge."


• Dr. Blix described Iraqi as open and cooperative with the U.N. Weapons Inspectors. He said that the inspectors encountered no opposition from the Iraqi's. They visited 36 sites and would have seen all of them if the U.S. had not invaded pre-emptively.
  
  In the U.S., the rhetoric from the Bush Administration told us that Iraq was continuing to play games with the U.N. and give weapons inspectors the run around. The point was that the world had put up with Saddam's shenanigans for too long and the U.N. didn't have the teeth to dead with Iraq.


• Bush's 2002 doctrine of pre-emptive attack directly countered international law and broke 100 years of work to establish rule governing international relations. It undermined the aim of international bodies from the League of Nations to the United Nations. By attacking when one thinks there will be an attack, one depends on accurate intelligence. How can the U.S. tell India not to pre-emptively strike Pakistan when it feels threatened? If all countries adapted this doctrine, we'd have international chaos.


• There were absolutely no WMD's. Iraq disarmed its chemical and biological weapons programs in 1991, and there was not time for Iraq to evacuate weapons to Syria.

Dr. Blix was solid and inspiring. His life's work has been to control and reverse nuclear proliferation. Hearing him speak just reiterated the list of disastrous and unforgivable choices the Bush Administration has made.