Administration Officials Speak Out On Iraq

[Terri]

Administration Officials Speak Out On Iraq

By Michael A. Minton
GOPUSA News
January 22, 2003

WASHINGTON (GOPUSA News) -- President Bush on Tuesday, after meeting with leading economists, and making brief remarks regarding his tax cut plan, then turned his focus to Iraq and the seemingly inevitable military action that awaits.

The president was asked if, with the French saying they would block a United Nations resolution authorizing force against Iraq, he could still reach a consensus. The president responded by stressing the importance that Americans, and people around the world, "understand that Saddam Hussein possesses some of the world's deadliest weapons," and he also pointed out that all members of the Security Council came together, the French included, to say Saddam must disarm.

The president was also asked who is in the "coalition of the willing." Bush answered by comparing this situation with the situation prior to the U.N. vote on the resolution requiring Iraq to disarm. He said that many of the punditry said "no one is going to follow the U.S.," and "we got a unanimous resolution."

Full Story (http://gopusa.com/news/2003/january/0122_iraq.shtml)

The President is very impatient with this process and I don't blame him. I expect him to lay out some information that we don't presently have by next week.

[Saber]

Terri, I've been calling for him to bring out some of the stuff he obviously has "close to his chest" for a very long time. I'm sure he's got good reason not to have divulged it yet, but it certainly would have stopped alot of this kumbaya hand-wringing a long time ago.

[Granite River]

As much as I like Colin Powell it is now clear to me that it was a mistake to follow his path through the UN. We haven’t picked up any more international support and the American public is tiring of the wait for action. It was General Powell who wanted to stop the Gulf War short, after he saw the pictures of the so called “highway of death”. We may have needed the time anyway to build up our forces but playing with the UN has only made the UN fools feel that they deserve a say in this. There is no doubt in my mind that most of Europe is taking the stand that they are taking out of jealousy rather than reason. Not one of these countries had a problem with attack a sovereign nation to drive the Serbs out of their home land, which had been occupied by Islamic Albanians. Still we see no concern from Europe that Clinton killed a lot more innocent people that he did Serb troops. There was no mention of international law when Clinton dropped a bomb on a building just to punish Slobo’s daughter.

Months ago we should have turned the no-fly zones into no-go zones for the Iraqi military. And then occupied the north and south as ground troops could get there. By now the Iraqi military would be nibbled down to nothing as they tried to get us out of the no-go zones. The opposition forces would be in control of most of the country and Saddam would be dead.