Bush unleashes PR barrage in battle for support on Iraq
- Financial Times -
By Guy Dinmore and James Harding in Washington
Published: January 21 2003 20:43 | Last Updated: January 21 2003 20:52
US President sees to regain political initiative with dossier depicting Saddam's government as "apparatus of lies"
The US on Tuesday sought to regain the political initiative over Iraq. It published a dossier depicting Saddam Hussein's government as an "apparatus of lies", as President George W. Bush maintained a high-pitched note of impatience with the Iraqi leader.
"It's clear to me now that he is not disarming," Mr Bush told reporters. "He's been given ample time to disarm . . . Time is running out."
The 30-page White House dossier describes a "highly developed, well disciplined and expertly organised programme designed to win support for the Iraqi regime through outright deceit".
The document goes over old ground, chronicling the use of human shields in war and the exploitation of the suffering of the Iraqi people which has been inflicted by the regime itself. It also accuses Mr Hussein of religious hypocrisy and exploiting Islam.
However, the White House's own version of agitprop also skates over some aspects of history. For example, it describes the use of chemical weapons against the Iraqi Kurds of Halabja in 1988, but omits to mention that the US supported Iraq during the conflict with Iran at that time, and was reluctant to admit that Halabja had happened.
The White House describes the horrific birth defects in Halabja since 1988, but does not address the failure of the international community to do anything about them.
At the same time, Mr Bush suggested he had little inclination to give the United Nations' weapons inspectors much more time. "This looks to me like a re-run of a bad movie and I'm not interested in watching it," he said, referring to Mr Hussein's years of non-compliance with UN resolutions following the Gulf war in 1991.
Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state, reinforced the message, saying the "next few days or weeks" would determine whether the US would go to war, with or without broad international support.
"Some people say there is no smoking gun, but there is nothing but smoke," Mr Armitage said. Countering French and German objections, he said it was "very dangerous wishful thinking" to believe that Mr Hussein would voluntarily disarm and "ludicrous" to say that he could be harmlessly contained.
Mr Armitage reiterated that Mr Bush had decided that if the international community was unwilling to back the US, then "the US and like-minded nations will step into the breach and make a stand".
The Bush administration has become increasingly focused on the public relations battle, as the antiwar movement has gathered momentum in the US and Europe.
Mr Bush on Tuesday signed an executive order formally creating the Office of Global Communications, which has been working informally for the last six months trying to spread the US message in sceptical parts of the world. |
