Saturday, 22 March 2003

IRAQ WAR COULD LAST LONGER THAN PLANNED - BUSH

WASHINGTON, March 22 (AFP) - The war in Iraq could last longer than planned and the installation of a democratic government there will require a long-term commitment, President George W. Bush said Saturday.

"A campaign on harsh terrain in a vast country could be longer and more difficult than some have predicted," Bush said in his weekly radio address to the nation.

"And helping Iraqis achieve a united, stable and free country will require our sustained commitment. Yet, whatever is required of us, we will carry out all the duties we have accepted.

The attorney general has a tricky task in defending the legal basis for war

Keir Starmer, Monday March 17, 2003, The Guardian

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

AVOS, Switzerland - The United States was in the hot seat at Thursday's gathering of the world's business and political leaders, criticized for a go-it-alone foreign policy that many fear will lead to war with Iraq and for a sluggish economy hampering a global revival.

The issue of growing U.S. threats against Iraq dominated early sessions and corridor conversations at the World Economic Forum, whose theme this year is "Building Trust."

Swiss President Pascal Couchepin was cheered during his opening speech, when he called for all peaceful means to be pursued to disarm Iraq and warned that "force must not be used before the matter has been brought before the U.N. Security Council."

Robert Fisk, 14 March 2003

For 30 years, America's veto policy in the United Nations has been central to its foreign policy. More than 70 times the United States has shamelessly used its veto in the UN, most recently to crush a Security Council resolution condemning the Israeli killing of the British UN worker Iain Hook in Jenin last December.

Most of America's vetoes have been in support of its ally Israel. It has vetoed a resolution calling for the Israeli withdrawal from the Syrian Golan Heights (January, 1982), a resolution condemning the killing of 11 Muslims by Israeli soldiers near the al-Aqsa mosque (April, 1982), and a resolution condemning Israelis slaughter of 106 Lebanese refugees at the UN camp at Qana (April, 1986).

Members of the UN Security Council have been reacting to the presentation by Secretary of State Colin Powell outlining the US case against Iraq:

"[UN weapons inspectors] are not in a position to draw conclusions and they have suggested continuing the inspections.

"We should respect their views [...] and support the continuation of their work."

Tang Jiaxuan, Chinese Foreign Minister

France: 'The use of force can only be a final resort'

"If (Iraqi) non-cooperation continues, this council must meet its responsibilities...

"Saddam must be left in no doubt as to the serious consequences which he now faces."

Jack Straw, UK Foreign Secretary

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/world/5047535.htm

SYDNEY - Former U.N. arms inspector Richard Butler said Tuesday that Washington was promoting "shocking double standards" in considering taking unilateral military action to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.

Butler, who led U.N. inspection teams in Iraq until Baghdad kicked them out in 1998, said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein undoubtedly possessed weapons of mass destruction, and was trying to "cheat" his way again out of the latest U.N. demand to disarm.

Former US Gulf War commander Norman Schwarzkopf has said a new war with Iraq has not yet been justified.

General Schwarzkopf, who became known as "Stormin' Norman" during the 1991 Gulf War, called for United Nations weapons inspectors to be given more time to assess whether Iraq had any illegal weapons.

"I think it is very important for us to wait and see what the inspectors come up with, and hopefully they come up with something conclusive," he said in an interview with the Washington Post.

Interviewed at his home in Tampa, Florida, the 68-year-old retired general said he would like "better information" before he supported an invasion of Iraq.

These are the key points of the US Secretary of State Colin Powell's briefing to the Security Council on Iraqi non-compliance with UN resolutions.

Inspections:

"The burden is on Iraq to comply and disarm. Inspectors are inspectors, not detectives". The facts and Iraqi behaviour indicate that Iraq is making no effort to disarm.

Mr Powell presented a communication intercept of a conversation between an Iraqi colonel and a general. In the intercept, Mr Powell says, one of the officers says: "We evacuated everything. We don't have anything left."

Sky News

Prime Minister Tony Blair has failed to convince the majority of Britons of the need for war with Iraq, according to a new poll.

The YouGov poll found that of nearly 2,000 people questioned only 26% said Mr Blair had convinced them that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is sufficiently dangerous to justify military action, against 68% who said Mr Blair had failed to do so.

Even among Labour supporters, only 40% had been convinced by Mr Blair's arguments, while 53% had not.

The poll, for The Sunday Times, also detected declining support for Britain participating in military against Iraq in the absence of specific United Nations' approval.

President Bush delivered his State of the Union address with a call to rally his people to war against Iraq.

In a speech full of patriotic rhetoric, he kept to his established tradition of presenting no justifiable evidence of why he intends to lead an onslaught against a country ravaged by a decade of sanctions and intrusive inspections.

Many points that Bush made during the speech were blatantly inaccurate, contradictory and hypocritical and were intended to focus his people's attention away from the decaying domestic situation, as well as to conceal his real motives abroad.