In other words, far from simply not complying, Iraq had complied with most of what had been asked of it (however grudgingly). It is a fantasy that, as is so often said, Iraq will never comply as long as Saddam is in charge. The UN resolutions allow for partial relaxation of sanctions in reward for partial compliance but this was never offered.
Indeed, before this report was delivered to the Security Council, the US and Britain brought about the withdrawal of UN inspectors and launched their Operation Desert Fox bombing of Iraq without Security Council approval. Iraq has refused to allow the inspectors related to resolution 687 back ever since.
If US policy really was driven by the need to disarm Iraq of WMD then it has been irrational. Their response to incomplete but extensive compliance has been to label it non-compliance, bomb Iraq and call for the overthrow of Iraq's leader. This hardly creates any incentive to comply any further. There has always been a significant thread of US and British opinion who have feared that Iraq will comply because sanctions might then be lifted.
If US policy is rational, then disarmament of Iraq's WMD has not been its priority: instead, the priority, stated all along has been to keep the pressure on for as long as it takes to get rid of Saddam Hussein (as Mil Rai puts it, leadership change, not regime change, which they are actually very frightened of, as indicated by their response to the 1991 uprising: they want rid of him, not the brutal system that runs Iraq).
Indeed, before this report was delivered to the Security Council, the US and Britain brought about the withdrawal of UN inspectors and launched their Operation Desert Fox bombing of Iraq without Security Council approval. Iraq has refused to allow the inspectors related to resolution 687 back ever since.
If US policy really was driven by the need to disarm Iraq of WMD then it has been irrational. Their response to incomplete but extensive compliance has been to label it non-compliance, bomb Iraq and call for the overthrow of Iraq's leader. This hardly creates any incentive to comply any further. There has always been a significant thread of US and British opinion who have feared that Iraq will comply because sanctions might then be lifted.
If US policy is rational, then disarmament of Iraq's WMD has not been its priority: instead, the priority, stated all along has been to keep the pressure on for as long as it takes to get rid of Saddam Hussein (as Mil Rai puts it, leadership change, not regime change, which they are actually very frightened of, as indicated by their response to the 1991 uprising: they want rid of him, not the brutal system that runs Iraq).