Although weapons inspectors have landed in Iraq and are
preparing to conduct their U.N.-mandated investigation, the
possibility of war is long from gone given President Bush’s
not-so-subtle commitment to a regime change in Iraq.
But if Bush must go to war, he needs to provide the correct
rationale and motives. Chancellor Albert Carnesale, a former
adviser to the federal government on national security, does.
Carnesale does not believe a war in Iraq should be launched with
the sole purpose of ousting Saddam Hussein ““ he believes the
purpose of military involvement should be to secure
disarmament.
In an interview this week, the chancellor said Bush has several
“lessons” to learn, including gaining both
congressional and international approval before attacking Iraq and
ensuring he doesn’t force Hussein and Iraq to fight to the
death because that itself might prod them to use weapons they may
not have wanted to use before. He acknowledged Bush has learned the
first two, but still needs to work on the third.
If the president’s motivation behind the war is ensuring
national security, he’ll allow the United Nations to
determine the level of threat Iraq poses and declare war only if
weapons development is found. Otherwise, he has no reason to oust
Hussein on the basis of a national security threat to the United
States.