SADDAM wants a duel...rolf
DJ WRAP: Iraq VP Challenges Bush To Duel With Saddam
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BAGHDAD (AP)--Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush should fight a duel to
settle their differences and spare the Iraqi and U.S. people the ravages of
war, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Thursday.
Ramadan suggested that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan be the referee.
The
duel, he added, should be held on neutral territory.
"Bush wants to attack the whole (of) Iraq, the army and the
infrastructure,"
Ramadan told Associated Press Television News.
Bush has said he wants Saddam toppled, and accused the Iraqi leader of
stockpiling nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and harboring
terrorists.
"The American president should specify a group, and we will specify a
group
and choose neutral ground with Kofi Annan as referee and use one weapon with
a
president against a president, a vice president against a vice president,
and
a minister against a minister in a duel," Ramadan said. "In this way, we are
saving the American and the Iraqi people."
Iraq has two vice presidents. Ramadan didn't say whether he or Taha
Muhie-eldin Marouf would take on Dick Cheney.
Ramadan, wearing a green military uniform and a black beret, made his
remarks without giving any outward sign whether he was joking, although
reporters who were present detected a note of irony in his voice.
In Washington, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the Iraqi
offer was irresponsible and didn't warrant a "serious response."
"I just want to point out that, in the past when Iraq had disputes, it
invaded its neighbors. There were no duels, there were invasions. There was
use of weapons of mass destruction and the military; that's how Iraq settles
its disputes," Fleischer said.
Ramadan said Iraq was neither concerned with nor surprised by U.S.
lawmakers' support of a congressional resolution that would authorize Bush
to
use force against Iraq.
"We pay no attention to this issue," he said, adding that approving such a
resolution "makes no difference" to Iraq.
The congressional resolution would support Bush's efforts to seek Iraqi
compliance through the United Nations and requires the president to report
to
Congress, within 48 hours of commencing an attack, that further diplomatic
means would not protect U.S. security interests and that military action
against Iraq wouldn't detract from the war on terrorism.
The agreement on the resolution specifies that authorization applies only
to
relevant U.N. resolutions regarding Iraq and not to establishing regional
security.
Ramadan criticized U.S. efforts to delay the return of U.N. weapons
inspectors to Iraq until the U.N. Security Council adopts tougher measures
that would give the inspectors broad new powers to hunt for weapons of mass
destruction and provide them with military backing to carry out the search.
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 10-03-02
02:02 PM
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