Former chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix says he fears the United States has a secret plan to keep its troops in Iraq.OK, OK... I'm not really Hans Blix, but we are obviously soul brothers when it comes to this shit.
Dr Blix, who warned against the invasion of Iraq after his inspectors found no evidence that weapons of mass destruction were being held by Saddam Hussein, is in Sydney to receive the Sydney Peace Prize.
"One fear I would have is that the US has a hidden thought to remain in Iraq," Dr Blix told ABC radio on Wednesday.
"One reason why they wanted in was that they felt they must leave Saudi Arabia.
"After the Gulf War in 1991 they left their troops in Saudi Arabia to protect pipelines," he explained.
"And when they felt they could no longer stay in Saudi Arabia, Iraq was the next best place because it was more secularised than Saudi Arabia and had the second biggest oil reserves in the region." ...
Earlier, Dr Blix said Australia's 500 troops in Iraq served mainly a symbolic role.
He told News Ltd that Australian troops provided more public relations value than anything and withdrawing them might not make any difference to the situation.
Dr Blix recalled the UN team's failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in 700 searches of 500 sites in Iraq.
"The aims of the war were, first of all, to eliminate weapons of mass destruction that did not exist," he said.
"Secondly, to establish a democracy, and what they ended up with was anarchy; and thirdly, they wanted to weed out al-Qaeda which was not there but which came there (after the invasion)."
He said the elimination of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was the war's only positive outcome.
Meanwhile, I'd better be careful what I say from now on... right??? :-)
