Is Saddam Hussein likely to use weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against the US and its allies?
First, many states, including the US, the UK and Israel, acquire these weapons for deterrence against external attack. You’ve got to admire Prime Minister Howard and the pro-war lobby for pretending not to understand the lesson that Iraq-North Korea are now teaching the world: If you want to deter the war addicts in Washington, you’d better have weapons of mass destruction and resources of terror. Nothing else will work. Why wouldn’t Iraq develop WMD for deterrence purposes given threats by Washington and London? We are discouraged from seeing things from Iraq’s point of view, but in many ways WMD make sense for vulnerable states. As the realist theorist Kenneth Waltz argues, “North Korea, Iraq, Iran and others know that the United States can be held at bay only by deterrence. Weapons of mass destruction are the only means by which they can hope to deter the United States. They cannot hope to do so by relying on conventional weapons.” As with every country, Iraq’s weapons inventory and
