The Greatest Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Growing Crisis of Global Security

Abstract

The leader of the United Nations' weapons inspection team issues a scathing indictment of the West's failure to stop Saddam Hussein--and a stern warning about the future.. The West may face no greater enemy than Saddam Hussein, and yet, as Richard Butler makes clear in The Greatest Threat, the West would rather bury its head in the Mesopotamian sands than deal with the problem. As the head of UNSCOM, the United Nations Special Commission that was supposed to regularly inspect Iraq for weapons violations after the Gulf War, Butler was the West's sheriff--the one person on the ground with the authority to shut the Iraqis down if he caught them cheating. And he was not the type to surrender to the Iraqis, not when he knew what was at stake. But Butler's authority was undermined behind his back. As he reveals in this outspoken, finger-pointing, newsbreaking book, Kofi Annan agreed to Hussein's outrageous demands and then claimed victory. Russia's foreign minister took secret payoffs from the Iraqis in exchange for his support. The French, eager to do business with the dictator, undercut American efforts to force Hussein to comply. And the result is that, despite Iraq's supposed defeat, Saddam Hussein has very likely resumed building nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that could be used against Israel, Turkey, or even the United States.The Greatest Threat is arousing, disturbing reading for anyone interested in American foreign policy, in the breakdown of controls on weapons of mass destruction, or in the precarious state of international relations. The West may face no greater enemy than Saddam Hussein, and yet, as Richard Butler makes clear in The Greatest Threat, the West would rather bury its head in the Mesopotamian sands than deal with the problem. As the head of UNSCOM, the United Nations Special Commission that was supposed to regularly inspect Iraq for weapons violations after the Gulf War, Butler was the West's sheriff--the one person on the ground with the authority to shut the Iraqis down if he caught them cheating. And he was not the type to surrender to the Iraqis, not when he knew what was at stake. But Butler's authority was undermined behind his back. As he reveals in this outspoken, finger-pointing, newsbreaking book, Kofi Annan agreed to Hussein's outrageous demands and then claimed victory. Russia's foreign minister took secret payoffs from the Iraqis in exchange for his support. The French, eager to do business with the dictator, undercut American efforts to force Hussein to comply. And the result is that, despite Iraq's supposed defeat, Saddam Hussein has very likely resumed building nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that could be used against Israel, Turkey, or even the United States.The Greatest Threat is arousing, disturbing reading for anyone interested in American foreign policy, in the breakdown of controls on weapons of mass destruction, or in the precarious state of international relations. *Butler is a commanding, charismatic, outspoken person who is passionately concerned about this subject Full of stories of political intrigue at high levels and an insider's portrait of major world figures .