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| Hans Blix [source: Telegraph] |
I had no Internet then, and I was getting most of my news via radio, using the CBC Foreign Service and listening to Radio Netherlands, Radio France International, Channel Africa, and Radio Sweden, among others.
Most of these newscasts mentioned Blix and Iraq and the fact that the inspectors hadn't found any weapons. But the reports on Radio Sweden were much more detailed.
Every day, Radio Sweden had a segment in which they talked to Hans Blix. And every day, Hans Blix said more or less the same things. He would talk about where they had been that day, and he would conclude by saying, "We are not having any problems. We can go anywhere we want to go. We can see anything we want to see. Our only problem is that we haven't found any weapons."
This went on until March of 2003, when President Bush announced that diplomacy had failed, and that bombing would begin in 48 hours. Blix and his inspectors packed up and fled, and the bombing did begin, with invasion and occupation to follow.
The civilian infrastructure of Iraq was destroyed. Hospitals, power plants, water treatment facilities and other vital military targets were bombed repeatedly.
Tens of thousands of civilians were tortured without being charged with a crime. Hundreds of thousands were killed. Millions were uprooted and left to live as refugees. So-called "civil" wars erupted which may never end, and violent extremists were hired, armed, and empowered to rule over the chaos.
No stockpile of banned weapons was ever found.
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