The Foreign Service Journal, March 2004

from Africa” bombshell released by the president just eight days earlier. I concluded in my proposed article that for the Secretary of State to leave this out of an 85-minute elaboration on the evidence against Iraq had to mean he was rejecting its validity. Neither op-ed was accepted, however. Unfortunately and ironically, the atmosphere during the lead-up to war was not propitious for good investiga- tive journalism. The press was busily embedding itself in the U.S. military and discussing how the war was to be pursued. The 24- hour news channels were ramping up their ad campaigns for coverage of the war with martial music and dramatic footage of our forces in the field. Congress had already gone through an unwelcome vote on the issue in October 2002, and most members were not inclined to do so again. By February 2003, the advancing war was enter- ing the stage when any questioning of the president was interpreted as with- holding support for our troops. And the temperature in Iraq was rising daily. Still, it was my hope that the pas- sage of a strongly-worded U.N. reso- lution in November and the subse- quent return of U.N. inspectors would obviate the need for military action, making such action politically unviable for the president. When, only weeks before the invasion, the U.N. succeeded in forcing Saddam to destroy his inven- tory of al-Samoud short-range ballistic missiles, which had demonstrated a range in excess of that allowed by U.N. restrictions, I felt that a critical corner had been turned. Surely the president would not proceed in the face of an increasingly tight inspections regime and the absence of Security Council support for an immediate F O C U S 48 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 0 4 Unfortunately, the atmosphere during the lead-up to war was not propitious for good investigative journalism. 2000 N. 14th Street Suite 500 Arlington, VA 22201 Telephone (703) 797-3259 Fax (703) 524-7559 Tollfree (800) 424-9500