When my inbox is flooded with links to one article, that is a good indication that I should review the link. Thomas Nephew's translation of a German article was definitely worth the read. Thanks all! Two German reporters, Jochen Bittner and Reiner Luyken, interviewed some of the UN inspectors who are currently in Cyprus while they wait to see if they will be needed after the liberation of Iraq.

Could this war have been prevented? Yes, say some [inspectors]. But with a surprising argument: Germany, France and Russia made war unavoidable with their purported peace politics. Gerhard Schroeder's categorical 'no' to military deployment was simply "crazy." "We might have been able to fulfill our mandate," one hears in the hotel lobby.

The 120 inspectors noticed soon, though, that they would not reach their goal without the full cooperation of Iraqis. But they waited in vain to be approached. A warning presentation by Hans Blix on January 15 in the Security Council didn't change things. Iraq made its first concessions when Secretary of State Colin Powell presented sensational pictures, videos, and tape recordings of mobile bioweapons labs, rocket launching ramps, and munitions bunkers. And as the American threat of war became more and more clear and found more support.

The excessive surveillance of the inspectors by minders of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate (NMD), which UNMOVIC had long objected to, then dropped off. For the first time, three interviews took place with Iraqi scientists with no minders present. The Iraqis also delivered some weapons programs documents that had been demanded in vain until then.

Very interesting. So the inspectors themselves did not see any useful cooperation from Iraq until immediately after Powell gave his speech and Saddam's regime feared military action. What happened next?

Blix delivered a more conciliatory situation assessment on February 14. This was the basis for Germany, France and Russia to speak of "functioning inspections" and to increasingly distance themselves from America and Great Britain. The governments in Berlin, Paris, and Moscow felt confirmed in the conviction that their peace strategy would lead to success.

The inspectors in Baghdad saw things completely differently: their position was suddenly weakened. Documents were held back again. Scientists appeared -- if at all -- only with their own tape recorders. After the conversations they had to deliver the cassettes to the NMD. The hope for greater assertiveness that had grown following Powell's speech diminished again. "After February 14 we didn't get much any more."

In hindsight a clear pattern emerged, from the viewpoint of the UN inspectors: "Saddam Hussein followed every step in the Security Council closely. As soon as divisions appeared, cooperation diminished."

"We were dependent on military pressure", an inspector emphasizes. They made no progress without the US aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf and without the troop deployments to Kuwait. They experienced the diplomatic tug-of-war between Washington and the European peace axis as a historical irony: from their point of view, every demand for a peaceful solution reduced the pressure on Iraq and made peace more unlikely. Success was less a question of time than one of the credible threat of the use of force.

Was the mission programmed to fail? No, say the inspectors: a united Security Council might have forced a peaceful disarmament.

I am very pleased to see this. Not because the UN inspectors themselves blame France, Germany, and Russia for the failed inspection process. Most Americans already knew this; the views of the inspectors are merely additional confirmation about things that are self-evident to most American eyes.

I am very pleased because this article was written and published by Germans, in Germany, for a German audience. This is yet another reason why I am optimistic that German-American relations can improve after Iraq is liberated (unlike my opinion about Franco-American relations).

The German people deserve better than Schroeder, and they know it.

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