CNN's Roberts on efficacy of Iraq sanctions: "[W]e still had to go to war to get rid of what it was that they had"

On the June 1 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, CNN senior national correspondent John Roberts, in reporting on the diplomatic package the United States and several other nations will offer Iran to discontinue its purported nuclear programs, commented that "Iraq endured 11 years of sanctions, and, you know, we still had to go to war to get rid of what it was that they had." As professional journalists, host Wolf Blitzer and Roberts are undoubtedly aware that no weapons of mass destruction -- nuclear or otherwise -- were found in Iraq and that the Iraq Survey Group's September 2004 final report (also known as the Duelfer Report) concluded that "Iraq did not possess a nuclear device, nor had it tried to reconstitute a capability to produce nuclear weapons after 1991." Nevertheless, Blitzer responded: "Good point, John."

From the June 1 edition of The Situation Room:

BLITZER: John, it's an important diplomatic triumph, if you will, for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But it's too early to be corking champagne bottles over at the White House.

ROBERTS: Yeah. I mean, there is nothing to suggest, Wolf, that even though they have agreed on a set of sanctions that anything is going to get past the U.N. Security Council. Don't forget, there has been a resolution on sanctions against North Korea because of its nuclear program that's been languishing for three years. And then, of course, there is the issue, if they do get sanctions leveled against Iraq -- leveled against Iran, are they going to work? Don't forget, Iraq endured 11 years of sanctions, and, you know, we still had to go to war to get rid of what it was that they had.

BLITZER: Good point, John. Thank you very much.