The resumption of weapons inspection and talk of disarming Iraq has turned out to be a big joke. Today the Bush administration said that only deposing Saddam would stop us from going to war with Iraq. Everybody knew this from the beginning, since when the Bush administration decided to go to war with Iraq a long time ago now, they made it clear that getting rid of Saddam was their goal. Unfortunately, this confirms that the talk of disarming Iraq this whole time was just a sad charade, and so was all the talk of terrorist ties. The Bush administration was hoping that it could unearth some pretense for war that the world would buy, but now that it’s obvious that just isn’t going to work, the ruse has been abandoned. Might makes right. Saddam must go. Hail Caesar.

By the way, for those of you who think that Saddam Hussein must go regardless of how we go about it, here’s Michael Kinsley explaining why procedure counts. I think that the argument that letting Saddam off the hook would be dangerous is persuasive. If we just turn around and send all of the American soldiers currently deployed back home, then containment is going to collapse in a hurry. But ignoring international law (such as it is) is disastrous as well. If the US, which is the cornerstone of the United Nations, ignores international law, why should anyone adhere to it?