DATE=2/24/2000 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=U-S-IRAQ NUMBER=5-45512 BYLINE=ED WARNER DATELINE=WASHINGTON CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: Nine-years after its victory in the Gulf War, the United States continues to bomb Iraq and maintain economic sanctions on the grounds Saddam Hussein prevents inspection of his weapons of mass destruction. But in a recent speech, a former U-N inspector said those weapons are long gone, and punitive polices are hurting Iraqis, not their leader. He urges a new policy of engagement with Iraq instead of containment. Correspondent Ed Warner reports his views and the responses of two Iraq analysts. TEXT: We have demonized a man at the expense of a nation, said Scott Ritter at a recent meeting of the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs. Mr. Ritter, a former U-N weapons inspector and before that an officer in U-S military intelligence, insisted economic sanctions have not accomplished their purpose of removing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. But he says they have helped impoverish Iraq, leading to widespread disease and a sharp increase in infant mortality. Why continue this punishment any longer? - asked Mr. Ritter, who was involved in what he considers the futile effort of tracking down Iraq's weapons of mass destruction: // RITTER ACT // While the inspectors played this complicated game of cat and mouse with the Iraqis in Iraq, with the Security Council back in New York, the people of Iraq continued to suffer under this huge burden of economic sanctions, a burden that we here in the United States cannot even begin to comprehend. // END ACT // Mr. Ritter contends Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have largely been destroyed. Nuclear devices are gone and chemical and biological ones can be constructed, if desired, in small areas that are very hard to locate: // RITTER ACT // They have components. They have blueprints. They have materiel, which in effect is so much junk as long as it sits on the back of a truck being shuttled from one site, to another site, to another site. But they have no factories capable of producing weapons of mass destruction. // END ACT // Support for sanctions against Iraq is rapidly eroding, says Mr. Ritter, so why keep up the pretense? He recommends lifting them and helping Iraq recover economically. He believes a policy of engagement, not containment, is more likely to undermine Saddam: // RITTER ACT // The best way to implement this vision is to lift economic sanctions and expose Saddam Hussein to a new kind of pressure that he has never felt before: the absolute requirement to rebuild his economy devastated by years of economic sanctions and military action. That is his number-one priority. He has no other recourse. // END ACT // Lifting sanctions would not change Saddam, responds David Wormser. The Director of Middle East Studies at the American Enterprise Institute says Saddam would be strengthened: // WORMSER ACT // The money that flows into Iraq is used by the regime for its own ends, and its ends are to solidify the regime. It is a sad, sad thing. The Iraqi people are going to be the first victims, whether the sanctions are lifted or whether they are maintained. Lifting sanctions I think would be interpreted by most of the world as giving up - a major setback to American policy. // END ACT // Mr. Wormser says the United States should give unqualified backing to the Iraqi opposition. This would encourage more desertions from Saddam's army: // WORMSER ACT // The moment they get a clear, undiluted signal from the United States that this is the way we are going to do it, and we are committed to doing it, then I think you are going to see a lot of forces line up more coherently. // END ACT // Political Science Professor Steve Yetiv of Old Dominion University in Virginia has doubts about an effective Iraqi opposition. // YETIV ACT // There would be an advantage in lifting economic sanctions if that approach were combined perhaps with an organized plan to create an alternative to Saddam Hussein. The problem, however, is that the best plan that we currently have is to support the Iraqi National Congress, and this group simply cannot get its act together. // END ACT // He thinks some members of the Iraqi elite might turn against Saddam if they can be assured life will not be worse for them afterwards. In the meantime, Professor Yetiv says U-S policy is making enemies of the people of Iraq, who could turn to terrorism for revenge: // YETIV ACT // It leaves an indelible mark historically. They still remember events like the Crusades that occurred 800-years ago. And this will be just one more in a string of events that they associate with Western domination and Arab humiliation. That certainly is something to take into consideration when weighing the pro's and con's of our approach. // END ACT // Professor Yetiv says the many ideas about how to handle Iraq need to be put together in a comprehensive plan. (SIGNED) NEB/EW/RAE 24-Feb-2000 12:42 PM EDT (24-Feb-2000 1742 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .