Breaking News: Ok, Maybe Not

First, Iraq Agrees to Weapons Inspectors (Mon Sep 16, 9:26 PM ET).

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Iraq agreed Monday to allow the unconditional return of U.N. weapons inspectors, a reversal coming days after President Bush ( news - web sites) warned Baghdad to comply with U.N. resolutions or face military action.

But then in a counter-intuitive move, White House Dismisses Iraqi Offer (Mon Sep 16, 9:35 PM ET).

The White House released a written statement that called the offer "a tactical step by Iraq in hopes of avoiding strong U.N. Security Council action."

"As such, it is a tactic that will fail," spokesman Scott McClellan said in the statement.

You may wonder at first, "What is Bush doing??!! He is being offered what he wanted so badly and threatened to go to war for!" Actually, weapons inspections was only one prong of Bush's demands on Iraq. Other key issues are disarmament and a regime change, which will not be achieved with simple weapons inspectors. After the Persian Gulf War, inspectors could not find any stockpiles of biological or chemical weapons--it was not until the defection of high ranking Iraqi officials that we discovered Iraq's deadly arsenals of WMDs. Bush obviously doesn't expect anything different this time, hence the rejection of 'mere' weapons inspections.

Your view of this action will mostly likely be determined by your stance on attacking Iraq.