Bush to U.N.: 'Show Some Backbone'
Sat Sep 14,10:47 PM ET
By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer
URL: story.news.yahoo.com
CAMP DAVID, Md. (AP) - President Bush ( news - web sites) made plain Saturday that the United States is willing to take Iraq on alone if the United Nations ( news - web sites) fails to "show some backbone" by confronting Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites). "Enough is enough," Bush said.
"The U.N. will either be able to function as a peacekeeping body as we head into the 21st century, or it will be irrelevant. And that's what we're about to find out," Bush said Saturday. He added: "Make no mistake about it. If we have to deal with the problem, we'll deal with it."
Vice President Dick Cheney ( news - web sites) echoed Bush. "We'd prefer to do this on an international basis with the approval and cooperation and support of other nations," he said in a CNN interview. "This is deemed to be such an important issue and such an important problem that we will address (it) by ourselves if we have to."
Bush spoke alongside Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, the second foreign leader in two weeks to visit Bush at Camp David for strategy sessions on Iraq.
Berlusconi, who has laid out a case in support of ousting the Iraqi president, has insisted that any action be taken with the U.N's approval.
He joined Bush in warning that the U.N.'s credibility was on the line. "The United Nations cannot continue to see its image undermined and its resolutions flouted," Berlusconi said through a translator. Italy will play a key role through its ties to European Union ( news - web sites) countries and through its "special friendship" with Russia, he said.
Repeating the case he outlined at the United Nations on Thursday, Bush said Saddam had "stiffed the world 16 times" by defying U.N. resolutions on Iraq's weapons programs.
Asked why Iraq deserved another chance to comply, Bush said the standoff was as much a test of the United Nations as of Saddam.
"This is the chance for the United Nations to show some backbone and resolve as we confront the true challenges of the 21st century," Bush said.
The administration is seeking a new U.N. resolution giving Iraq a firm deadline, just weeks way, to disarm or face dire, but thus far unspecified, consequences. Discussions at the United Nations continue into this week on a range of issues, chiefly what action to take if Saddam continues to reject such an arrangement.
James Baker, a secretary of state under Bush's father, said the resolution must endorse "all necessary means" to back up the deadline. Weapons inspectors "should be backed up with a United Nations security force on Iraqi soil, preferably under U.S. command, with the means (and under clear orders) to thwart all attempts by Iraq to block or delay the inspectors," Baker wrote in Sunday's Washington Post.
Baker said the United States should go it alone, if necessary. "Acting alone or with a few key allies will make the undertaking more costly — politically, economically and in terms of other U.S. foreign policy interests," he said. "But sadly, doing nothing is potentially the most costly strategy of all."
Russian President Vladimir Putin ( news - web sites) has cited Bush's reasoning in arguing that Russia has the right to take action against Chechen rebels he calls terrorists in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
Bush sidestepped a question about whether he thought that action would be justified. But he said he had "made it very clear to the Georgian government that we expected them to rout out the al-Qaida-type terrorists" in the region, and said the United States is training Georgian troops for that purpose.
Moreover, he said he had told Putin to "give the Georgians a chance to achieve a common objective," one also important to Russia and the United States — capturing al-Qaida members and bringing them to justice.
After talking to reporters, Bush and Berlusconi met for two hours.
Bush also devoted his weekly radio address to Iraq, seeking to sway public opinion as he lobbies Congress and foreign leaders.
"The issue is straightforward," Bush said in the radio address, broadcast before Berlusconi's arrival at Camp David.
"We must choose between a world of fear, or a world of progress. We must stand up for our security and for the demands of human dignity. By heritage and choice, the United States will make that stand. The world community must do so as well." |
