I'd call that "introspection" apeasement. It's as much who we are as what we do. Its our goverment's absolute inability to get our side of the story out, while middle eastern despots convince that their people that their lack of everything is the fault of the US. So a large part of the world believes children are starving in Iraq because of the sanctions, not because Sadaam refuses to use the oil-for-food program. A large number of people also believe Israel attacked the World Trade towers, even though the hijackers were mostly Saudis. We just don't bother to confront these bits of propaganda. And from the resonse from the Iraqi ambassodor on one of the talk shows, I could easily believe that most of the propaganda comes from Sadaam's Iraq.
The inspector on NPR also said because of the changes to the weapons inspection regime to apease our "alies" like France, no real inspections happened in 1997. They left a year later. If we just pick up were we left off, with the same rules, its a wasted effort. The weapons inspectors in the past were delayed for hours while evidence was removed or destroyed.
Add to that, the folks in charge now have stated that they will not cooperate in any intelegence gathering/shareing. So they won't know where to look, or what the things they find mean. God I hate idealistic assholes. I guess they would be shocked, shocked if anyone in the Iraqi regime lied to them. Without inteligence, they'll never know.
I like the idea of one pundit, start by requireing Sadaam to make a true and accurate list of the weapons he has, then If we manage to find anything not on the list we will have freshly proven him a liar, and might be able to convince the French, the Russians, and other alies blinded by profitable smuggling and/or the promise of big contracts with Iraq, that this guy is dangerous. Or maybe they want the US to go it alone so only the US will have to deal with the costs and the terrorism to follow. I doubt we could get the UN to agree to ask for the list, then authorize war if there are any omissions or the inspectors are in any way restricted, but that's what it would take to make inspections worth while.
On the other hand, I watch the US leaders with access to intelegence, or with military experience. Those who have been briefed don't come out convinced, and those who know war first hand don't want to go in. That gives me pause.
I understand the president thinks the CIA assesments are too timid. So he's putting all his faith in "intelegence" brought to him by the Iraqi National Congress--The wannabe leaders of the new Iraq. Could it be that they might shade the truth to get the US to do their revolution for them?