President Bush in a prime-time address called Saddam Hussein a
“murderous tyrant” who is a threat to the United States
and who must be dealt with by military means if necessary.
“Saddam Hussein is a homicidal dictator who is addicted to
weapons of mass destruction,” he said in an evening speech at
the Cincinnati Museum Center.
The address focussed largely on Iraq’s weapons of mass
destruction programs. Hussein’s regime has a biological
stock-pile “capable of killing millions,” Bush said.
The president also mentioned that Hussein has in the past ordered
chemical weapons attacks against Iran and even Iraq’s own
people. Furthermore, if the current Iraqi regime develops a nuclear
weapon, the United States will be in even more danger, Bush
said.
“If we allow that to happen, a terrible line will be
crossed,” he said.
“America must not ignore the threat gathering against us.
Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof
““Â the smoking gun ““Â that could come in the
form of a mushroom cloud.”
Bush’s address opened a week of debate in Congress over
resolutions giving the president authority to wage war against
Iraq. The House of Representatives and Senate planned votes for
Thursday and the Bush-backed resolution is expected to pass by wide
margins.
Bush said Monday he hopes members of Congress ““ nearing a
“historic vote” ““ will remember that “vast
oceans no longer protect us from danger.”
But Bush’s policy is hardly unchallenged. A large
contingent opposes action in Iraq.
Sunday, thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Wilshire
Boulevard, shutting it down from the Federal Building to the U.S.
Army Reserve Center at Federal Avenue. Many carried signs saying
“Stop Bush,” “Give Peace a Chance,” and
“Not in Our Name.”
The rally was just one of many held Sunday ““ anti-war
demonstrations also took place in Seattle, Chicago, New York and
San Francisco.
Marchers in Westwood said they virulently opposed war with
Iraq.
“War is terrible,” said Harry Anderson, who carried
a sign describing himself as a veteran of Iwo Jima.
“We’re making a preemptive strike. We’re being
the aggressor.”
Kevin McKweon, the Green Party mayor pro-tem of Santa Monica,
agreed. “America does not strike first. American does not
believe in preemptive war. Give us back our country,” he
said.
Bush has also run into some opposition in Congress, particularly
among democrats who oppose unilateral action.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D”“Mass., urged Bush to exercise the
same restraint that John F. Kennedy, his brother, did in refraining
from an attack on Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis.
A first-strike attack on Iraq “˜”˜is impossible to
justify,” Kennedy told the Senate. “˜”˜Might
does not make right. It is unilateralism run
amok.”
Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who supports a hard line toward
Saddam, nevertheless accused the administration of
“˜”˜gratuitous unilateralism.”
“In word and deed,” the administration
“frequently sends the message that others don’t
matter,” Edwards said.
But Bush won support Monday from House Majority Leader Dick
Armey, R-Texas, one of the few senior Republicans in Congress who
had voiced worries about his Iraq policy.
Armey said he now believes Iraq violated terms of the peace
agreement that ended the Persian Gulf War a decade ago.
“˜”˜I don’t see this as preemptive,”’
he said.
Bush said Iraq has violated the truce that ended the Gulf War in
the early 1990s by continuing to develop weapons of mass
destruction and kicking out U.N. weapons inspectors in the
mid-1990s.
Iraq officials said in late September that they would let
inspectors back in. However, the Bush administration said they
still did not trust Iraq.
The president Monday laid out strict requirements Iraq must
adhere to before he is convinced they are not a threat.
Iraq must, Bush said:
“¢bull; Eliminate all of its weapons of mass destruction.
“¢bull;Â Allow witnesses to the development of weapons of
mass destruction to be interviewed by U.N. officials outside of
Iraq, so they don’t feel threatened to answer questions a
certain way.
“¢bull; Allow weapons inspectors unfettered access to
facilities, anywhere and anytime.
Perhaps addressing concerns over attacking Iraq alone, Bush
seemed careful to speak of a possibly attack against Iraq by the
United States “and its allies.” Hussein “must
disarm himself,” Bush said. “Or for the sake of peace
we will lead a coalition to disarm him.”
Political science Professor Thomas Schwartz said Bush sternly
threatened war with Iraq, in hopes of getting Hussein to pay
attention.
“If you vaguely threaten dire consequences, he won’t
care,” Schwartz said. “You have to threaten war to
avoid it.”
Addressing the question of a U.N. resolution against Iraq,
Schwartz said Bush could probably “do much of what he wants
without a resolution.”
But a resolution would be helpful to convince Congress to
authorize spending measures and so his case will be more
convincing.
“The more credible you make it that both war and regime
change are inevitable, the more likely you have compliance,”
he said.
With reports from Christina Jenkins, Daily Bruin Senior Staff,
and The Associated Press.