moral relativism on the front page

Today's Washington Post, in a front-page story carries the headline "Inspectors Rebuked By U.S. And Iraq". Pity the poor UN inspectors, torn between two apparently equal poles of discontent: The noble Iraqis, under the brave leadership of Saddam; the aggressive Yanks, under the decisive leadership of Dubya.

This "news" article then goes on to note that "officials in each capital [are] questioning the mission's motives, impartiality and determination". Well then. There we have it; equal weight for the opinion of, in this corner, the leader of the free world (as in with free elections, civil liberties, religious tolerance). In that corner, the chief thug who holds no free elections, kills his citizens by the thousands with banned weapons of mass destruction, starts wars, attacks neighboring countries.

Oh, by the way - a vice president (whatever that title may mean in Iraq) named Ramadan chirps in, more true to form, with this gem (from this update : "Vice President Ramadan, in his remarks the previous evening to a visiting delegation of Egyptian professionals, said of the inspectors: 'Their work is to spy to serve the CIA and Mossad (Israel's intelligence service).'" Normally, you'd have to say that boy's headgear was wrapped too tight; sadly, Ramalamalamamamadingdong's voice is likely truer to form for the Iraqi wingnuts.

Oh, and this, also from the update - the first concrete evidence that, yes, Iraq still has some WMD. In this case, according to UN team leader Demetrius Perricos:

Among other things, Perricos reported that on a five-hour inspection of a desert installation on Wednesday, his experts secured a dozen Iraqi artillery shells – previously known to be there – that were loaded with a powerful chemical weapon, the agent for mustard gas.

So, come the 8th of December, when Iraq officially claims it has no chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons, would this "guilty with an explanation" be accepted by the UN and other Saddam apologists? They will, or at least attempt to jaw us to death arguing about it, rather than rid the world of the scourge of Saddam and his less-than-merry henchmen.