GIVE THEM MORE TIME

The United Nations inspection process, resumed in November and only now getting up to speed, stands in the way of what otherwise would be a countdown to war with Iraq.

President Bush is expected to tell more about his war plans after meeting in Washington today with his one firm foreign ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Secretary of State Colin Powell goes to the U.N. Security Council Wednesday to make the U.S. case that Saddam Hussein is an imminent threat and that he has close links with the al- Qaida terrorist network. The Bush administration has often made those assertions but until now has kept its evidence secret.

Administration officials agreed only reluctantly to send the inspectors back in and increasingly call the inspections useless. Even Secretary Powell, an early advocate of the inspections and a diplomatic solution to the crisis over Saddam Hussein’s deadly arsenal, has gotten fed up. But many members of the old Gulf War coalition want the inspections to continue. Veto-bearing members of the Security Council, France, China, and Russia. all oppose war, although Russian President Vladimir Putin warned this week that Moscow might change its position “if Iraq resists these inspections, if it creates problems for the inspectors.”

The inspectors quite rightly complained that Iraq has been obstructing their work and has failed to tell what has happened to huge stocks of anthrax, botulism and nerve gas admitted and discovered in the 1990s. At the same time, they made it clear that they are only now getting well started. Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief U.N. inspector for atomic weapons, asked for “a few months” more to complete his work. Hans Blix, the lead inspector for biological and chemical weapons, listed failures by Saddam Hussein to prove that he has eliminated illegal weapons. But Mr. Blix’s spokesman said that he, too, needed more time for further inspections.

Mr. ElBaradei’s report undercut President Bush’s repeated claim that Iraq has resumed its efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The inspector said, “we have to date found no evidence that Iraq has revived its nuclear weapon program since the elimination of the program in the 1990s.” His team visited all buildings suspected as possible nuclear weapons plants and sampled lakes and streams for signs that weapons-grade material had been produced. They found nothing illegal. And they concluded that imported aluminum tubes, which Mr. Bush has said could be used to enrich uranium for weapons, were actually for nonnuclear rockets.

Saddam Hussein clearly is a threat and a danger. The United States is almost ready to attack, with or without Security Council approval. War could mean either a short, successful conflict or a long, bloody fight in the streets of Baghdad, with massive Iraqi civilian casualties and a stream of American body bags coming home. In either case, the war would inflame the Arab world, make recruiting easy for al-Qaida, and quite possibly explode into outbreaks of war elsewhere in the world, such as Korea.

The alternative, with the inspections going on and the military buildup ready to strike, would be an uneasy peace. Saddam would find it hard to continue any weapons programs or use any weapons he already has. And he would face constant pressure to comply with the world community and give up his weapons plans. The American war preparations may be more effective as a continuing threat than in actual war.

As the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says in a new report on Iraq: “Saddam Hussein is effectively incarcerated and under watch by a force that could respond immediately and devastatingly to any aggression. Inside Iraq, the inspection teams preclude any significant advance in [weapons of mass destruction] capabilities The status quo is safe for the American people.” It makes sense to give the inspectors more time.