Hi Nadine Carroll; Re: "The FM made the announcement in English and NPR ran the tape."
I'd love to see a transcript, but NPR takes a few days to produce them. The problem is that there are a lot of "weasel words" that diplomats and politicians use when they want to please more than one person at the same time.
And there is no question that both the conservative and the liberal sources exaggerate the war mongering. I've said this before. If you look at what the administration is saying, it's still more of the usual delay, delay, delay:
"None of the steps we are taking represents a commitment of British forces to military action. A decision to employ force has not been taken, nor is such a decision imminent or inevitable."
cnn.com
"There has to come a moment when our patience must run out, and we are now near that point with Iraq," Straw said.
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"We must not be afraid to meet the challenges that are ahead," Powell said after the U.N. session.
He denied his comments represented an ultimatum. "I wanted there to be no mistake about this, and time is running out," Powell said.
...
cnn.com
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Fleischer stopped short of calling the weapons cache a breach of an anti-arms U.N. resolution, saying the United States has already found Hussein in violation of several U.N. rules.
...
washingtonpost.com
Instead of actively looking forward to invading Iraq, the administration is clearly praying for a miracle:
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Three top Bush administration officials said today they would welcome exile for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and one, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, signaled the United States might allow Hussein to escape war crimes prosecution if he voluntarily steps down.
The remarks came as the administration increasingly faces resistance from other members of the U.N. Security Council for a quick decision on military action. Previously, officials said they could not presume to speak for the Iraqi people or other nations that might want to charge Hussein for killing thousands of Iraqis since he seized power in 1979. Today's comments appeared to be a signal to Hussein that a bargain might be in the offing.
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Powell, interviewed on CBS's "Face the Nation," said, "I would encourage Saddam Hussein, if he is getting any messages of this kind, to listen."
He said that Hussein's departure would bring about the "regime change" long sought by the United States
...
washingtonpost.com
To have a war, you have to have (a) an ultimatum, and (b) a callup of at least 150,000 total reserves. So far, we have neither. There's talk about making an ultimatum, and there's talk about calling up the reserves, but the talk has been going on for six months and the level of activated reserves is still nearly 30,000 below its summer peak.
-- Carl
P.S. It's particularly ironic that Debka, a right wing Israeli source says that the Turks turned us down, as you quoted Saturday:
the Turks are being non-cooperative #reply-18461558 |
