U.N. inspectors are back on the ground in Iraq tonight, back on the streets of Baghdad with a monumental job to do and fierce parties on all sides. Iraq has bowed to the U.N. Security Council’s demand that it accept inspectors with a sweeping mandate to look everywhere–but Saddam Hussein’s government is already charging it’s being bum-rushed to war.

The Bush administration reluctantly bought into the UN inspection “process,” but appears torn between wanting a full disclosure of bad weapons and wanting a quick trigger for military action and regime change.

Up next On Point: weapons, agendas, and the narrow path away from war with Iraq.

Guests:

Colum Lynch, U.N. reporter, The Washington Post

David Kay, chief nuclear weapons inspector, UNSCOM (1991-1992) and senior fellow, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies

Raymond Zilinskas, biological weapons inspector, UNSCOM (1994)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and a senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly