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Bush: No negotiations on Iraq
05/10/2002 20:48 - (SA)
Manchester - US President George W Bush said on Saturday that war with Iraq may be unavoidable and that delay was not an option to keep a defiant Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from deploying weapons that could cause "massive and sudden horror" for America.
"There's no negotiations. There's nothing to talk about. We don't want you to have weapons of mass destruction...Now you've got to show the world you don't have them," Bush said of Hussein at a ceremony in Manchester, New Hampshire, honoring law enforcement officers and members of the National Guard.
"We must not ignore reality. We must do everything we can to disarm this man before he hurts one single American," Bush told hundreds of flag-waving supporters in a preview of a prime-time television speech next week in which he will explain to the American people and the US Congress why he thinks the US should be prepared to take military action.
Bush, before attending a fund-raiser expected to generate $500 000 for Replican John Sununu's Senate bid and other New Hampshire Republicans, called the Iraqi president "one of the most brutal dictators in modern history" who has deceived the world about his weapons of mass destruction for 11 years.
"We hope that Iraq complies with the world's demands. If, however, the Iraqi regime persists in its defiance, the use of force may become unavoidable. Delay, indecision, and inaction are not options for America, because they could lead to massive and sudden horror," Bush said in his weekly radio address that aired on Saturday.
Bush, spending the weekend at his family's seaside compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, will devote a rare televised evening address on Monday to making his case against Hussein and outlining the threat he says is posed by Baghdad's alleged chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.
He will deliver the 20-minute speech in Cincinnati, Ohio, a Midwestern venue that appears to have been chosen to show that he is seeking to prepare the American heartland for the possibility of war.
"The United States does not desire military conflict, because we know the awful nature of war," Bush said. But he added: "The danger to America from the Iraqi regime is grave and growing."
Bush issued the warning as Congress opens debate on resolutions authorising the use of military force against Iraq if needed to deal with Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction.
At the same time, UN Security Council members are discussing the terms of a new resolution demanding that Baghdad disarm or face the consequences.
The US accuses Iraq of stockpiling biological and chemical weapons in defiance of the UN. Bush said Hussein had long-standing ties to terrorist groups capable of and willing to deliver "weapons of mass death".
"We cannot leave the future of peace and the security of America in the hands of this cruel and dangerous man," he said. "This dictator must be disarmed, and all the UN resolutions against his brutality and support for terrorism must be enforced."
In an apparent effort to answer concerns that he has no plans for rebuilding Iraq after possible military action, Bush talked about a post-Hussein era.
"Should force be required to bring Saddam to account, the United States will work with other nations to help the Iraqi people rebuild and form a just government," he said in his radio address.
US officials said Bush wanted to ensure that the borders of Iraq remained the same, a signal that Washington does not want to see the country divided among its ethnic groups, including the Kurds in the north.
Bush urged lawmakers to support the use-of-force resolution and send a clear message to Hussein: "His only choice is to fully comply with the demands of the world and the time for that choice is limited."
Some Democrats would prefer that the president deal first with the threat posed by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, blamed by Washington for the September 11 attacks on America that killed more than 3 000 people.
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