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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bacchus_ii who wrote (59596)	12/2/2002 6:06:00 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I keep saying that December 8th will be the day of reckoning for Iraq. The Administration went into a full court press on it today. From the NYT. December 2, 2002 Bush Presses Iraq on Sunday Deadline for Arms Inventory By DAVID E. SANGER and RICHARD W. STEVENSON WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 ? President Bush demanded today that Saddam Hussein meet the first major test of the United Nations resolution by providing a "credible and complete" accounting of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction by the Sunday deadline set by the United Nations, and said his initial reading of the Iraqi leader's cooperation was "not encouraging." Only a week after United Nations weapons inspectors began searching for evidence of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq, Mr. Bush appeared to be setting the stage today for making the Sunday disclosure a major turning point for Iraq. While he stopped short of declaring that an incomplete declaration on Sunday would be an immediate cause for war, he said it would be the test of whether Mr. Hussein had changed his ways. "Any act of delay, deception or defiance will prove that Saddam Hussein has not adopted the path of compliance," he said. Others in the administration said, however, that the Dec. 8 deadline would not be a trigger for immediate military action ? for which the Pentagon is not yet prepared ? but rather an additional piece of evidence as they build a case for action. Mr. Bush's speech today ? together with one given by Vice President Cheney in Denver ? marked the opening of a campaign by the White House to emphasize that disarmament, not cooperation with United Nations inspectors, is the test that the Iraqi leader must meet. "The inspectors are not in Iraq to play hide-and-seek with Mr. Saddam Hussein," Mr. Bush said in a speech at the Pentagon. "In the inspections process, the United States will be making one judgment: Has Saddam Hussein changed his behavior of the last 11 years? Has he decided to cooperate willingly and comply completely, or has he not? So far the signs are not encouraging," the president said. Mr. Bush cited Iraqi attacks on American and British warplanes in the no-flight zones over Iraq, confrontations that the United States, though few other nations, regards as a material breach of the United Nations resolution requiring Iraq's disarmament. With the inspectors having given no public indication of having found any evidence of weapons of mass destruction in their early visits to sites in and around Baghdad, the White House was clearly eager today to cast the current maneuvering not as a test of whether the United States can make its case that Iraq is a threat but instead as a test of whether Mr. Hussein is cooperating fully in the disarmament process. Underscoring the administration's effort to keep up the pressure on Iraq, Vice President Cheney, in his speech, noted that "this time, deception will not be tolerated." He once again linked the Iraqi government to Al Qaeda ? a link many of the administration's critics have questioned. He warned anew that terror groups like Al Qaeda could link up with outlaw regimes to attack the United States. "That is why confronting the threat posed by Iraq is not a distraction from the war on terror," Mr. Cheney said in his speech. "It is absolutely crucial to winning the war on terror." Both the president and the vice president focused on Sunday's deadline for Iraq to provide a full list to the United Nations of its weapons. "On or before the eighth of December, Iraq must provide a full and accurate declaration of its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs," Mr. Bush said. "That declaration must be credible and complete ? or the Iraqi dictator will have demonstrated to the world once again that he has chosen not to change his behavior." Making clear that the consequence would be war, the president added: "The temporary peace of denial and looking away from danger would only be a prelude to broader war and greater horror. America will confront gathering dangers early before our options become limited and desperate."