THE
PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Thank you for that very gracious and warm Cincinnati
welcome. I’m honored to be here tonight; I appreciate you all coming.
Tonight
I want to take a few minutes to discuss a grave threat to peace, and America’s
determination to lead the world in confronting that threat.
The threat comes from Iraq. It
arises directly from the Iraqi regime’s own actions—its history of aggression,
and its drive toward an arsenal of terror. Eleven years ago, as a condition for
ending the Persian Gulf War, the Iraqi regime was required to destroy its
weapons of mass destruction, to cease all development of such weapons, and to
stop all support for terrorist groups. The Iraqi regime has violated all of
those obligations. It possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons.
It is seeking nuclear weapons. It has given shelter and support to terrorism,
and practices terror against its own people. The entire world has witnessed
Iraq’s eleven-year history of defiance, deception and bad faith.
We also must never forget the most
vivid events of recent history. On September the 11th, 2001, America felt its
vulnerability—even to threats that gather on the other side of the earth. We
resolved then, and we are resolved today, to confront every threat, from any
source, that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America.
Members
of the Congress of both political parties, and members of the United Nations
Security Council, agree that Saddam Hussein is a threat to peace and must
disarm. We agree that the Iraqi dictator must not be permitted to threaten
America and the world with horrible poisons and diseases and gases and atomic
weapons. Since we all agree on this goal, the issue is: how can we best achieve
it?
Many Americans have raised
legitimate questions: about the nature of the threat; about the urgency of
action—why be concerned now; about the link between Iraq developing weapons of
terror, and the wider war on terror. These are all issues we’ve discussed
broadly and fully within my administration. And tonight, I want to share those
discussions with you.
First, some ask why Iraq is
different from other countries or regimes that also have terrible weapons.
While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands
alone—because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place.
Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction are controlled by a murderous tyrant who has
already used chemical weapons to kill thousands of people. This same tyrant has
tried to dominate the Middle East, has invaded and brutally occupied a small
neighbor, has struck other nations without warning, and holds an unrelenting
hostility toward the United States.
By its past and present actions,
by its technological capabilities, by the merciless nature of its regime, Iraq
is unique. As a former chief weapons inspector of the U.N. has said, “The
fundamental problem with Iraq remains the nature of the regime, itself. Saddam
Hussein is a homicidal dictator who is addicted to weapons of mass
destruction.”
Some ask how urgent this danger is
to America and the world. The danger is already significant, and it only grows
worse with time. If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today—and we
do—does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows
even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?
In 1995, after several years of
deceit by the Iraqi regime, the head of Iraq’s military industries defected. It
was then that the regime was forced to admit that it had produced more than
30,000 liters of anthrax and other deadly biological agents. The inspectors,
however, concluded that Iraq had likely produced two to four times that amount.
This is a massive stockpile of biological weapons that has never been accounted
for, and capable of killing millions.
We know that the regime has
produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin
nerve gas, VX nerve gas. Saddam Hussein also has experience in using chemical
weapons. He has ordered chemical attacks on Iran, and on more than forty villages
in his own country. These actions killed or injured at least 20,000 people,
more than six times the number of people who died in the attacks of September
the 11th.
And surveillance photos reveal
that the regime is rebuilding facilities that it had used to produce chemical
and biological weapons. Every chemical and biological weapon that Iraq has or
makes is a direct violation of the truce that ended the Persian Gulf War in
1991. Yet, Saddam Hussein has chosen to build and keep these weapons despite international
sanctions, U.N. demands, and isolation from the civilized world.
Iraq possesses ballistic missiles
with a likely range of hundreds of miles—far enough to strike Saudi Arabia,
Israel, Turkey, and other nations—in a region where more than 135,000 American
civilians and service members live and work. We’ve also discovered through
intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial
vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across
broad areas. We’re concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVS
for missions targeting the United States. And, of course, sophisticated
delivery systems aren’t required for a chemical or biological attack; all that
might be required are a small container and one terrorist or Iraqi intelligence
operative to deliver it.
And that is the source of our
urgent concern about Saddam Hussein’s links to international terrorist groups.
Over the years, Iraq has provided safe haven to terrorists such as Abu Nidal,
whose terror organization carried out more than 90 terrorist attacks in 20
countries that killed or injured nearly 900 people, including 12 Americans.
Iraq has also provided safe haven to Abu Abbas, who was responsible for seizing
the Achille Lauro and killing an American
passenger. And we know that Iraq is continuing to finance terror and gives
assistance to groups that use terrorism to undermine Middle East peace.
We know that Iraq and the al Qaeda
terrorist network share a common enemy—the United States of America. We know
that Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade. Some
al Qaeda leaders who fled Afghanistan went to Iraq. These include one very
senior al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and
who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks.
We’ve learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons
and deadly gases. And we know that after September the 11th, Saddam Hussein’s
regime gleefully celebrated the terrorist attacks on America.
Iraq
could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a
terrorist group or individual terrorists. Alliance with terrorists could allow
the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints.
Some have argued that confronting
the threat from Iraq could detract from the war against terror. To the
contrary; confronting the threat posed by Iraq is crucial to winning the war on
terror. When I spoke to Congress more than a year ago, I said that those who
harbor terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves. Saddam Hussein is
harboring terrorists and the instruments of terror, the instruments of mass
death and destruction. And he cannot be trusted. The risk is simply too great
that he will use them, or provide them to a terror network.
Terror cells and outlaw regimes
building weapons of mass destruction are different faces of the same evil. Our
security requires that we confront both. And the United States military is
capable of confronting both.
Many people have asked how close
Saddam Hussein is to developing a nuclear weapon. Well, we don’t know exactly,
and that’s the problem. Before the Gulf War, the best intelligence indicated
that Iraq was eight to ten years away from developing a nuclear weapon. After
the war, international inspectors learned that the regime has been much
closer—the regime in Iraq would likely have possessed a nuclear weapon no later
than 1993. The inspectors discovered that Iraq had an advanced nuclear weapons
development program, had a design for a workable nuclear weapon, and was
pursuing several different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb.
Before being barred from Iraq in
1998, the International Atomic Energy Agency dismantled extensive nuclear weapons-related
facilities, including three uranium enrichment sites. That same year,
information from a high-ranking Iraqi nuclear engineer who had defected
revealed that despite his public promises, Saddam Hussein had ordered his
nuclear program to continue.
The evidence indicates that Iraq
is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous
meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his “nuclear
mujahideen”—his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq
is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in
the past. Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other
equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for
nuclear weapons.
If the Iraqi regime is able to
produce, buy, or steal an amount of highly enriched uranium a little larger
than a single softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year. And
if we allow that to happen, a terrible line would be crossed. Saddam Hussein
would be in a position to blackmail anyone who opposes his aggression. He would
be in a position to dominate the Middle East. He would be in a position to
threaten America. And Saddam Hussein would be in a position to pass nuclear
technology to terrorists.
Some citizens wonder, after 11
years of living with this problem, why do we need to confront it now? And
there’s a reason. We’ve experienced the horror of September the 11th. We have
seen that those who hate America are willing to crash airplanes into buildings
full of innocent people. Our enemies would be no less willing, in fact, they
would be eager, to use biological or chemical, or a nuclear weapon.
Knowing these realities, America
must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of
peril, we cannot wait for the final proof—the smoking gun—that could come in
the form of a mushroom cloud. As President Kennedy said in October of 1962,
“Neither the United States of America, nor the world community of nations can tolerate
deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation, large or
small. We no longer live in a world,” he said, “where only the actual firing of
weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation’s security to constitute
maximum peril.”
Understanding the threats of our
time, knowing the designs and deceptions of the Iraqi regime, we have every
reason to assume the worst, and we have an urgent duty to prevent the worst
from occurring.
Some believe we can address this
danger by simply resuming the old approach to inspections, and applying
diplomatic and economic pressure. Yet this is precisely what the world has
tried to do since 1991. The U.N. inspections program was met with systematic
deception. The Iraqi regime bugged hotel rooms and offices of inspectors to
find where they were going next; they forged documents, destroyed evidence, and
developed mobile weapons facilities to keep a step ahead of inspectors. Eight
so-called presidential palaces were declared off-limits to unfettered
inspections. These sites actually encompass twelve square miles, with hundreds
of structures, both above and below the ground, where sensitive materials could
be hidden.
The world has also tried economic
sanctions—and watched Iraq use billions of dollars in illegal oil revenues to
fund more weapons purchases, rather than providing for the needs of the Iraqi
people.
The world has tried limited
military strikes to destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction
capabilities—only to see them openly rebuilt, while the regime again denies
they even exist.
The world has tried no-fly zones
to keep Saddam from terrorizing his own people—and in the last year alone, the
Iraqi military has fired upon American and British pilots more than 750 times.
After eleven years during which we
have tried containment, sanctions, inspections, even selected military action,
the end result is that Saddam Hussein still has chemical and biological weapons
and is increasing his capabilities to make more. And he is moving ever closer
to developing a nuclear weapon.
Clearly, to actually work, any new
inspections, sanctions or enforcement mechanisms will have to be very
different. America wants the U.N. to be an effective organization that helps
keep the peace. And that is why we are urging the Security Council to adopt a
new resolution setting out tough, immediate requirements. Among those
requirements: the Iraqi regime must reveal and destroy, under U.N. supervision,
all existing weapons of mass destruction. To ensure that we learn the truth,
the regime must allow witnesses to its illegal activities to be interviewed
outside the country—and these witnesses must be free to bring their families
with them so they are all beyond the reach of Saddam Hussein’s terror and
murder. And inspectors must have access to any site, at any time, without
pre-clearance, without delay, without exceptions.
The time for denying, deceiving,
and delaying has come to an end. Saddam Hussein must disarm himself—or, for the
sake of peace, we will lead a coalition to disarm him.
Many nations are joining us in
insisting that Saddam Hussein’s regime be held accountable. They are committed
to defending the international security that protects the lives of both our
citizens and theirs. And that’s why America is challenging all nations to take
the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council seriously.
And these resolutions are clear.
In addition to declaring and destroying all of its weapons of mass destruction,
Iraq must end its support for terrorism. It must cease the persecution of its
civilian population. It must stop all illicit trade outside the Oil For Food
program. It must release or account for all Gulf War personnel, including an
American pilot, whose fate is still unknown.
By taking these steps, and by only
taking these steps, the Iraqi regime has an opportunity to avoid conflict.
Taking these steps would also change the nature of the Iraqi regime itself.
America hopes the regime will make that choice. Unfortunately, at least so far,
we have little reason to expect it. And that’s why two administrations—mine and
President Clinton’s—have stated that regime change in Iraq is the only certain
means of removing a great danger to our nation.
I hope this will not require
military action, but it may. And military conflict could be difficult. An Iraqi
regime faced with its own demise may attempt cruel and desperate measures. If
Saddam Hussein orders such measures, his generals would be well advised to
refuse those orders. If they do not refuse, they must understand that all war
criminals will be pursued and punished. If we have to act, we will take every
precaution that is possible. We will plan carefully; we will act with the full
power of the United States military; we will act with allies at our side, and
we will prevail. (Applause.)
There is no easy or risk-free
course of action. Some have argued we should wait—and that’s an option. In my
view, it’s the riskiest of all options, because the longer we wait, the
stronger and bolder Saddam Hussein will become. We could wait and hope that
Saddam does not give weapons to terrorists, or develop a nuclear weapon to
blackmail the world. But I’m convinced that is a hope against all evidence. As
Americans, we want peace—we work and sacrifice for peace. But there can be no
peace if our security depends on the will and whims of a ruthless and
aggressive dictator. I’m not willing to stake one American life on trusting
Saddam Hussein.
Failure to act would embolden
other tyrants, allow terrorists access to new weapons and new resources, and
make blackmail a permanent feature of world events. The United Nations would
betray the purpose of its founding, and prove irrelevant to the problems of our
time. And through its inaction, the United States would resign itself to a
future of fear.
That is not the America I know.
That is not the America I serve. We refuse to live in fear. (Applause.) This
nation, in world war and in Cold War, has never permitted the brutal and
lawless to set history’s course. Now, as before, we will secure our nation,
protect our freedom, and help others to find freedom of their own.
Some worry that a change of
leadership in Iraq could create instability and make the situation worse. The
situation could hardly get worse, for world security and for the people of
Iraq. The lives of Iraqi citizens would improve dramatically if Saddam Hussein
were no longer in power, just as the lives of Afghanistan’s citizens improved
after the Taliban. The dictator of Iraq is a student of Stalin, using murder as
a tool of terror and control, within his own cabinet, within his own army, and
even within his own family.
On Saddam Hussein’s orders,
opponents have been decapitated, wives and mothers of political opponents have
been systematically raped as a method of intimidation, and political prisoners
have been forced to watch their own children being tortured.
America believes that all people
are entitled to hope and human rights, to the non-negotiable demands of human
dignity. People everywhere prefer freedom to slavery; prosperity to squalor;
self-government to the rule of terror and torture. America is a friend to the
people of Iraq. Our demands are directed only at the regime that enslaves them
and threatens us. When these demands are met, the first and greatest benefit will
come to Iraqi men, women and children. The oppression of Kurds, Assyrians,
Turkomans, Shi’a, Sunnis and others will be lifted. The long captivity of Iraq
will end, and an era of new hope will begin.
Iraq is a land rich in culture,
resources, and talent. Freed from the weight of oppression, Iraq’s people will
be able to share in the progress and prosperity of our time. If military action
is necessary, the United States and our allies will help the Iraqi people
rebuild their economy, and create the institutions of liberty in a unified Iraq
at peace with its neighbors.
Later this week, the United States
Congress will vote on this matter. I have asked Congress to authorize the use
of America’s military, if it proves necessary, to enforce U.N. Security Council
demands. Approving this resolution does not mean that military action is
imminent or unavoidable. The resolution will tell the United Nations, and all
nations, that America speaks with one voice and is determined to make the
demands of the civilized world mean something. Congress will also be sending a
message to the dictator in Iraq: that his only chance—his only choice—is full
compliance, and the time remaining for that choice is limited.
Members of Congress are nearing an
historic vote. I’m confident they will fully consider the facts, and their
duties.
The attacks of September the 11th
showed our country that vast oceans no longer protect us from danger. Before
that tragic date, we had only hints of al Qaeda’s plans and designs. Today in
Iraq, we see a threat whose outlines are far more clearly defined, and whose
consequences could be far more deadly. Saddam Hussein’s actions have put us on
notice, and there is no refuge from our responsibilities.
We did not ask for this present
challenge, but we accept it. Like other generations of Americans, we will meet
the responsibility of defending human liberty against violence and aggression.
By our resolve, we will give strength to others. By our courage, we will give
hope to others. And by our actions, we will secure the peace, and lead the
world to a better day.
May God bless America.
Source: “President Bush Outlines
Iraqi Threat: Remarks by the President on
Iraq.”
Cincinnati Museum Center–Cincinnati Union Terminal,
Cincinnati, Ohio. Available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html