A Necessary Warning

September 11 reminded Americans that we ignore international terrorism at our peril. There were a few warning bells leading up to the attack, but unfortunately none were loud enough or clear enough to alert America’s intelligence community to the impending danger. The United States can never again afford to be complacent about threats to America’s homeland or its allies.

To that end, President George W. Bush’s call on Monday for Iraq to allow U.N. weapons inspectors to reenter the country was a prudent move. In the current environment, the international community is naturally more sensitive to threats—particularly those of the chemical, biological or nuclear sort.

Saddam Hussein has long been known to be developing these types of weapons, and the U.S. has continuously tried to keep sanctions in place to prevent him from realizing his goals. When the anthrax attacks began, many experts wondered whether the weapons-quality bacteria were created in Iraqi facilities; were Iraq to obtain weapons of mass destruction, there is no question into whose hands they would fall—and against whom they would be used.

But in the years since the Gulf War, the resolve of the international community has crumbled, and the sanctions have unfortunately done more harm to the Iraqi people than they have to Hussein and his ruling elite. The Bush administration’s recent push to institute “smart sanctions”—measures that would strengthen currently lackluster enforcement on military-capable equipment and allow in more goods for purely civilian use—is a better way to prevent Iraq from increasing its military potential while also seeking support for continued sanctions in the international community.

Hussein, of course, has rejected smart sanctions, international weapons inspectors and an expanded oil-for-food program. He has continued to use the people of Iraq as his pawns in a callous act of international blackmail, exhibiting their abject poverty as evidence of U.S. cruelty while he and his henchmen live in luxury. His behavior is evidence of his utter disregard for the people of Iraq—if anyone had needed more from a leader who attacked his own nation’s citizens with nerve gas.

This warning to Hussein, however, should not be considered the “next step” in the current war against terrorism. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has said that there is no specific evidence linking Iraq to the attacks of Sept. 11, and it would be inappropriate of the administration to portray any pressure placed on Iraq as simply a continuation of our campaign in Afghanistan. Rather, the administration must rebuild the international coalition against Iraq and its potential access to destructive weapons, and combat the threat of terrorism one step at a time.