Reuters August 21, 2002
Bush to Meet Top Advisers Amid Concern over Iraq
BY MARK EGAN
CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush meets his top national security advisers to discuss military reform on Wednesday as the world watches for any sign the United States is prepared to take action to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Bush will meet at his Texas ranch with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and others. The meeting, set to start at 10 a.m. EDT, is expected to last several hours.
"The purpose of the meeting is to talk about transformation of the Defense Department," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
The meeting will focus on reforming the U.S. military's weapons, strategy and finances, and developing a system to defend against a missile attack on the United States, the White House said. But even with Iraq off the official agenda, experts said the matter would be hard to ignore.
IRAQ HAS TO COME UP
"Everybody else is talking about Iraq. It's hard to see how they would avoid talking about it," said John Pike, a defense policy expert and director of GlobalSecurity.org.
Jay Farrar, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former staff member of the National Security Council, said he expects Iraq to be discussed.
"I find it hard to believe it will not come up in some way, even if it is not a major topic of conversation," Farrar said.
Bush has made ousting Saddam a top priority, saying the Iraqi leader is developing weapons of mass destruction and must be stopped before he can use them against the United States or its allies, or share them with terrorist groups.
Critics of U.S. military action against Iraq, including close American allies, worry such a move would set a dangerous precedent -- a pre-emptive war to head off a possible threat. They also have expressed concern about the stability and viability of Iraq after Saddam's possible ouster.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has called possible U.S. action against Iraq an "adventure," and said Germany would not take part. Others have warned that a pre-emptive strike could unravel international support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
Opposing views also come from some prominent members of Bush's own Republican Party, including Brent Scowcroft, who helped the president's father, former President George Bush, build an international coalition for the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq.
Bush has peppered recent public appearances with anti-Saddam remarks. On Friday, he said the Iraqi leader was "thumbing his nose at the world," and that he would make his decision on how to proceed to oust Saddam based on the "latest intelligence."
"The world would be safer off without Saddam Hussein in power," Fleischer said on Tuesday.
Rumsfeld repeated charges that members of Saudi-born extremist Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, accused by the United States of carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks on America, were being harbored in Iraq. Rumsfeld said it was "ludicrous" to suggest Saddam was unaware of their presence.
© Copyright 2002 Reuters
