Word: blix
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...plausibly holds decisions on war and peace in his hands, Hans Blix gives the impression of being a remarkably relaxed fellow. Sitting in his office at the United Nations building in New York City, with satellite photos of Baghdad on the walls, the Swedish diplomat who heads the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) has a comfortable, lived-in look about him; he's the kind of man who in the movie might have been played by Alec Guinness in his prime. He has a caution that comes from decades as an official in international institutions but exudes...
...Blix--one of those rumpled lawyers who always see both sides of a question--could hardly be more different from George W. Bush, a man of clenched jaw and moral clarity. Yet the Swede's words now have the sort of power that some Bush Administration officials would otherwise ascribe only to Holy Writ. If Blix says that his inspectors are making progress on disarming Iraq, then the U.S. probably will not soon win broad international backing for a war. If, on the other hand, Blix concludes that Iraq has had no intention of cooperating with the inspectors, then...
...Blix insists that all he does is "give an accurate description of the reality that I see." The decision on whether Iraq is in material breach of Security Council resolutions, he says, is a matter for the Council itself. But after an hour-long interview with Blix late last week, a group of TIME editors came away with the impression that he was a lot more skeptical of Iraqi behavior than has been assumed and that he could imagine Saddam Hussein exhausting the patience even of those countries that presently want to give the inspectors more time. The Iraqis, Blix...
...good. Will such a resolution be passed? While Bush headed off to his ranch in Texas last weekend, the answer to that question was left with a man whose language epitomizes those very shades of gray that Bush seems to hate. "I'm not rushing to conclusions," says Blix; "I have to be a lawyer ... Monitoring requires patience ... I try to get the balance that I perceive is true." Not the words that Bush would use. But don't be surprised if, one day soon, Hans Blix's modulated tones summon up the dogs of war. --With reporting by Massimo...
...Blix Speaks His Mind...