On this issue of inspections in Iraq and whether they work, the French think they do.
They believe that every time we hear Saddam Hussein say that he's going to blow up one more missile or unveil one more stash of chemical weapons that it's proof inspections are doing their job.
I don't think so. Inspections didn't get Hussein to make those moves. Some 250,000 U.S. troops breathing down his throat did.
Inspections didn't get Hussein to have a V-8 moment and say, "Look what I discovered here." U.S. ships within missile range of him did.
And inspections didn't get Hussein to say, "Okay, I'll show you weapons I said I didn't have but I really do have". Huge displays of powerful new weapons of our own did.
I know the French and others like to say inspections got those concessions, but let's be honest here... we did.
Do you think in your wildest dreams we'd have seen this guy give up so much as a paper plane if we didn't have a few hundred very real planes in there ready to pounce?
Get real. And France, get this: words don't matter if you're not prepared to back 'em up. So you keep yapping up. We'll keep backing up.
After all, we're used to that. History tells us you like to talk, and history tells us we like to act so you keep debating, and we'll keep doing.
Watch Neil Cavuto's Common Sense weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on Your World w/Cavuto.
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