Why do people need to believe in lies?

Realpolitik

Originally posted by Conundrum04
Saddam accuses some of the inspectors of being spies, kicks them out, and ends up being correct in doing so because they were, indeed, spies imbedded.

Well, Saddam Hussein never actually kicked the weapons inspectors out of Iraq. That's a bit of coalition propaganda. It is true that Saddam's people made it very difficult for the inspectors, and in particular Scott Ritter, to operate. Ritter eventually resigned from UNSCOM, but he wasn't expelled by the Iraqi government.

The Wikipedia article on the weapons inspections confirms this. By the way, it is very informative and interesting. Well worth a read.

So was Saddam just supposed to let this happen?

If the Iraqis had found spies in UNSCOM, and managed to secure evidence of espionage, then they'd have been well justified in kicking the rascals out. But in the event, no such evidence was presented; accusations and refusals to cooperate were made instead.

I expect there was spying. The US and UK governments certainly had good reason to peek, and so did others. But the Iraqis must have known that messing with UNSCOM would only have made things worse for them in the long run. So: was Saddam just supposed to let this happen? He certainly had good reasons of realpolitik for doing just that -- had he decided to. Instead, he chose to play ego games with his adversaries, and got crushed.