Iraq WMD Flap May Bolster U.N. Position

By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent

Whatever the political backlash in election-year America, the U.S. retreat on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction signals a victory in the larger fight to control the deadliest of weapons. Sanctions and inspections, the United Nations and global teamwork appear to have worked in curbing Iraq's ambitions.

In the lead-up to the U.S. invasion last March, David Kay said war was the only answer. "If you want to disarm Iraq ... there is no alternative," wrote the man who would become chief U.S. weapons hunter.

But by Sunday, after leaving that job, Kay had concluded that years of earlier U.N. inspections had "got rid of" weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. "The weapons do not exist," he told National Public Radio.

That finding, if accepted in the corridors of power in Washington, may help revive a unified, U.N.-led strategy on arms proliferation, a strategy in which economic pressure, diplomacy and inspectors supplant the threat of unilateral U.S. attack.

More...