Sub Title:  [METRO Edition]
              Start Page:  10A

              >From an editorial in the Guardian:

              Without fanfare Britain and the United States have resumed their bombing of
              Iraq. Whether or not the official Iraqi reports that the latest attacks
              killed civilians are true, the bombing is unnecessary and reckless.

              After long debate the United Nations passed a resolution many months ago
              setting up a new inspection system designed mainly to check Iraqi progress
              in dismantling its weapons of mass destruction and the potential to
              re-create them. The inspectors have recruited their team and will soon be
              ready to visit Baghdad. Although Iraq has not yet said it will accept them,
              for some weeks it has not repeated its statements rejecting the resolution
              that set up the inspection team. There is therefore an opportunity that
              could make it easier for the team to start work.

              Air attacks on Iraq at this moment cannot help the climate. To claim, as the
              United States and Britain do, that they contain no political message and are
              merely a technically triggered reaction to the fact that Iraqi defenses have
              locked on to the planes is disingenuous. The aircraft that patrol the two
              no-fly zones over Iraq are under political control and Washington and London
              could easily reduce the number of flights.

              Britain and the United States should also take more seriously the questions
              which the Iraqis have raised about the new inspectors. When the council
              authorized the team, the aim was to find a quicker way of achieving
              compliance and ending the international sanctions, which have dragged on for
              almost 10 years. It is true that the sanctions have been eased but they are
              still in force and doing serious harm to ordinary people, though very little
              to the regime. Iraq wants to know whether there is a finite term in sight if
              it cooperates with the inspectors or whether it is entering another tunnel
              in which objections will constantly be raised.

              The American presidential election complicates the matter since neither
              candidate wants to appear weak. But the Iraqi bogy has fortunately lost much
              of its resonance in American politics and there is no reason why sensitive
              diplomacy at the United Nations should suddenly explode into a campaign
              issue. Rather than sending warplanes over Iraq the United States and Britain
              should be sending signals to their U.N. missions to urge the
              secretary-general to answer Iraq's legitimate questions.

              Credit: Guardian