I asked Jed Babbin for his assessment of the Blix report this morning. Here’s his Corner exclusive analysis:

Chief Inspector Blix threw another smoke grenade at the U.N. Security Council today. Though his experts’ found that Iraq’s al Fatah and al Samoud-2 missiles were both capable of exceeding the limits that the U.N. imposed, he only said that the missiles “could be” a prima facie case that Iraq is in material breach of Resolution 1441. And he took great pains to pooh-pooh Colin Powell’s evidence by saying that the movement of decontamination equipment from a suspected chemical weapons site could be “incidental” and isn’t proof that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. No one will ever confuse Blix with Joe Friday.
The most telling reaction to Blix’s report was that of Farouk al Shara, the Syrian representative. Syria — whose wholly owned subsidiary, Hezbollah, continues to be one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups–says that any war in Iraq will impede the war against terrorism. No more precise statement of the truth’s opposite is imaginable. The U.N. inspections are an expensive charade, and the price is too high a risk to our national security. With the U.N. or without it, with NATO or with our new coalition, the time to take military action against Saddam is now. Let’s get it done. Saddam delendus est.