The Bush administration announced Friday it will push this week for a U. N. resolution calling for a final deadline of March 17 for Iraq's complete disarmament, leading to speculation that war is imminent.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday on NBC's \Meet the Press"" that ""time has just about run out"" for Saddam Hussein, ""and when that time elapses, then the regime must be changed."" If the U.N. resolution does not pass, he said, the president will determine whether to lead a willing coalition to remove the Iraqi dictator.
What this means, according to experts, is that the United States is willing to remove Hussein without U.N. approval, which could lead to the deployment of American troops and a diminution in the U. N.'s status as the main power in international politics.
Milton Leitenberg, senior research scholar at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs, said the United States is not the only threat to U.N. authority, and that those who plan to veto the resolution have ignored U.N. charter 678 for 13 years. Charter 678 led to the conclusion of the Persian Gulf War.
""Iraq signed on to [678] to get a cease-fire ... If Iraq was in material breach [in possession of chemical or biological weapons], then the cease-fire was over. Since March 1995 France, Russia and China have said crap on that,"" Leitenberg said.
Although U.S. foreign relations remain in question, experts agreed that an attack on Iraq will open the gates to international instability.
UW-Madison Professor of political science Neil Richardson said a war could lead to the intensification of problems between Palestine and Israel and difficulties in Turkey and Saudi Arabia. He also said U.S. citizens will feel the effects of the war.
Americans will see a surge in gas prices, Richardson said, and parents of soldiers have to be worried because American lives will be lost. Also, despite the president's claims, ""an attack on Iraq is an invitation to recruit additional terrorists,"" he said.
Although Leitenberg agreed that the imminent war will have inevitable consequences, he said he did not think Americans should worry about terrorist attacks.
""The problems will be international problems. You have a million times more chance of getting knocked off by a car as you walk around campus than any of these other things,"" he said.
Experts agreed that the next week will bring the Iraqi conflict to a head. Although reasons for and repercussions from the war are debatable, Richardson said one thing seems certain--""we will go alone.""
