The purpose of the UN mechanism, this inspection mechanism, is not to engage in a cat and mouse game with Saddam Hussein and try to find weapons that the Iraqi government is working on concealing.

No, the United States does not target civilians.

What the UN inspectors can do is demonstrate to the world, help the Iraqi government demonstrate to the world that the Iraqis are cooperatively disarming if that is in fact what the Iraqi government decides to do.

They have involved co-operation between the Iraqi intelligence and al-Qaeda operatives on training and combined operations regarding bomb making and chemical and biological weapons.

There have been linkages between the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda going back more or less a decade.

The key to making the inspections work is the Iraqi government making the crucial decision that because of the international pressure Iraq has to disarm itself.

Europe is a collection of free countries.