18 June 1999
TEXT: NSC DIRECTOR RIEDEL'S JUNE 18 SPEECH ON IRAQ AND US POLICY
(US is committed to help bring about change in regime) (2330) Washington -- Saddam Hussein's regime has a proven track record of misrule and as a threat to international standards of behavior and it must be prevented from achieving its goals of dominating the Gulf and enforcing its will on the people of the Middle East, says Bruce Riedel, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC). Riedel outlined three goals of American foreign policy on Iraq in a speech June 18: The first goal is to contain this very dangerous regime and to keep it from acquiring the means to again threaten its neighbors, he said. "We do this through strict enforcement of the U.N. economic sanctions of the no-fly zones and by making clear that we can and will use force if Saddam threatens his neighbors, the Kurds, or tries to rebuild his WMD arsenal. Riedel made the point that the United States continues to support professional expert weapons inspections as the only agreed means to establishing Iraqi compliance with U.N. resolutions. "Our second goal is to do all we can to alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people," he said, noting that the United States has spearheaded this effort through the U.N. oil-for-food program "to get goods and medicine to the Iraqi people -- almost 7 billion dollars so far." The third goal is to encourage a change of leadership. "Real disarmament, real peace, and real relief will only come when there is a government in Baghdad genuinely committed to those objectives," he said. The United States is committed to helping Iraqis "who yearn for a different kind of Iraq" and others to bring about change," Riedel said. But, he made clear, "meaningful change in Iraq can only be brought about by Iraqis. The United States can only help those inside and outside Iraq working for change to realize their ambitions. We cannot do it for them. And in so doing, we must take care to maintain the unit and integrity of Iraq, and avoid a slide into civil war and chaos." "Saddam's days are numbered," Riedel said. "Through patience and perseverance, we will defeat him just as we have defeated so many other enemies of freedom." Following is the text of Riedel's speech, as prepared for delivery: (begin text) SPEECH PREPARED FOR DELIVERY BY BRUCE 0. RIEDEL Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director, Near East and South Asian Affairs National Security Council June 18, 1999 "Iraq and American Policy" For almost a decade now, the international community in general and the United States in particular, have been engaged in a deadly confrontation with Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Iraq has been the subject of almost 50 United Nations' Security Council Resolutions because of Saddam's blatant and repeated refusal to comply with the norms of the international community. Today the United Nations is managing the largest humanitarian relief effort in its history because of Saddam's willful disregard of the Iraqi people's well being. Today, American and British pilots will risk their lives to enforce the no-fly zones to reduce the risk Saddam poses to his neighbors and his own people. Since 1991, our pilots have taken that risk a quarter of a million times and they will continue to do so for as long as Iraq remains a threat to the stability of the Gulf region. Why is the United States so determined to lead the effort to contain Saddam? And why and how does the United States plan to bring about a new leadership in Iraq? That is what I want to talk about today. No one doubts Iraq's strategic importance at the top of the Persian Gulf. It is a potentially prosperous and wealthy country blessed with an abundance of oil and gas, two great rivers, and a people who can justly claim to be the first to start civilization. Energy experts believe Iraq may have the largest reserves of oil in the world and the last barrel of oil pumped might just be Iraqi. Few also question the proposition that Saddam is a proven threat to international standards of behavior and to American interests but many forget just how appalling the record of Saddam's 30 years of misrule has been. -- This is a regime that has started two wars in our lifetime, invading two of its neighbors -- Iran and Kuwait -- and causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands in those two wars. -- This is a regime that deliberately dumped millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf and set fire to hundreds of oil wells to create environmental catastrophes. -- This is a regime implicated in dozens of nefarious plots including trying to overthrow the President of Syria in 1979 to assassinating Israel's Ambassador in London in 1982 to the attempt to murder former President Bush and Amir Jabir in 1993. -- This is a regime that has perpetrated massive, indiscriminate slaughters of its own Kurdish and Turkomen populations and against the Kuwaiti people during the occupation of Kuwait. -- This is a regime that has murdered scores of Shia religious leaders in an effort to silence the great Shia learning centers at Kerbala and Najaf. -- This is a regime that has drained the marshes of southern Iraq to destroy the centuries-old culture of the marsh-Arabs, creating an ecological nightmare. -- This is a regime that has used chemical weapons against its own people and its neighbors, not once but often, and has fired ballistic missiles at cities from Tel Aviv to Tehran. -- This is a regime that routinely murders its dissidents and even its own sons-in-law. In sum, this is not just another tinhorn, megalomaniac. This is a regime with a proven track record which must be prevented from achieving its goals of dominating the Gulf and enforcing its will on the people of the Middle East. The first goal of American foreign policy is to contain this very dangerous regime and to keep it from acquiring the means to again threaten its neighbors. We do this through strict enforcement of the UN economic sanctions of the no-fly zones and by making clear that we can and will use force if Saddam threatens his neighbors, the Kurds, or tries to rebuild his WMD arsenal. We have been successful in this endeavor despite repeated challenges. Since 1990 sanctions enforcement has kept over 120 billion dollars out of Saddam's wallet. An arms industry that once employed a half million Iraqis has been choked of the funds and goods it needs to function. Three million Kurds and other Iraqis live outside Saddam's tyranny under our protection in Northern Iraq. Saddam's attempts to threaten Kuwait again in 1994 and 1995 were stopped in their tracks. Sixty percent of Iraq's airspace is in our hands providing critical buffer zones to detect and destroy any Iraqi move north or south. Through our support for the UN inspectors more of Saddam's arsenal of WMD was destroyed than in any other arms control program. We will continue to ensure that Saddam never again gets his hands on Iraq's oil wealth. That is our bottom line on the UN sanctions regime. Simply put, this tyrant can never again be trusted to determine how Iraq's wealth is spent. The international community must control Iraq's finances until we're all satisfied that there is a government at peace with its neighbors and its own people. Our second goal is to do all we can to alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people. They are his greatest victims and he has cynically abused them to gain sympathy from around the world. We must be clear-eyed about the facts. Saddam could have complied with UN resolutions eight years ago but he declined. He could have accepted the oil-for-food arrangement in 1991 when it was first offered, instead of five years later. If the Iraqi people have suffered, the responsibility is solely his. And the Iraqi people have suffered. Saddam has cynically spent billions on building four dozen luxurious new marble palaces and other useless extravagances while the Iraqi middle class has been destroyed. Iraq is suffering from a terrible drought, but Iraqi farmland goes dry to ensure that there is ample water for the picturesque lakes that surround Saddam's palaces. Indeed, we should not let Iraq's propaganda machine mislead us. On the one hand it claims millions of Iraqis have died from sanctions. And on the other, it claims Iraq's population has grown faster than at any time in history. Any economist can tell you that if Iraq's claims about deaths from sanctions were correct, Iraq would have had to have had the highest population growth rate in the world -- by far -- over the last ten years. There is one known truth: the United States has spearheaded the effort through oil-for-food to get goods and medicine to the Iraqi people -- almost 7 billion dollars so far. An Iraqi per capita caloric intake has risen substantially as a direct result from half the UN's minimal daily requirements to well over it. In the North, where the UN directly administers the program, health and nutrition standards have risen far faster than they have in central and southern Iraq, where the UN plays only a supervisory role. According to the UN's Office of the Iraq Program, Baghdad warehouses are overflowing with medicine because Saddam's regime cannot or will not distribute it to the people of central and southern Iraq. The United States is determined to do what it can to get more aid to the Iraqi people while maintaining the strict controls over Iraqi finances. If the Iraqi people are going to be fed and healed, we are going to have to do it, because Saddam has proven he won't. If Iraq's revenues were returned to Saddam, only the world's arms merchants would prosper. Our third goal is to encourage a change of leadership. Real disarmament, real peace, and real relief will only come when there is a government in Baghdad genuinely committed to those objectives. Last month a group of Iraqi patriots representing the mosaic of Iraqi life were in Washington. Secretary Albright and my boss, Sandy Berger, reaffirmed to them our determination to help tell the world there are free Iraqis who yearn for a different kind of Iraq. We are committed to helping them and others to bring about change. But let's be clear about something: meaningful change in Iraq can only be brought about by Iraqis. The United States can only help those inside and outside Iraq working for change to realize their ambitions. We cannot do it for them. And in so doing, we must take care to maintain the unity and integrity of Iraq, and avoid a slide into civil war and chaos. Our message to Saddam's supporters is simple. Stay with Saddam and you will remain pariah outcasts from the world community. There will be no rehabilitation of Saddam Hussein. However, if Saddam is replaced by a government ready to comply with the UN resolutions, to live in peace with its neighbors and its people, the United States will be its partner. We will seek sanctions relief. We will encourage American investment. We will work to forgive Saddam's 100 billion dollar war debts. We will hold only Saddam responsible for his crimes. It will be up to Iraqis to determine their future and that of his cronies. We will encourage pluralism and respect for minorities. There is no reason by Iraq without Saddam cannot again be a productive, prosperous, peaceful, and strong member of the family of nations. Some say the United States wants a weak Iraq led by Saddam as a justification to keep our forces in the region. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our vital national security interest lies in a peaceful, prosperous Iraq in a stable Middle East. Others say we will never remove the sanctions and that we have always changed the goalpost on Iraq. But recent events elsewhere show that we do live up to our commitments. When Libya's government turned over the Pan Am 103 suspects, sanctions were suspended. When Iran took action against narcotics trafficking, we removed it from the drug list. Other critics say we have given up on the weapons inspectors. Let me be clear. The United States continues to support professional expert weapons inspections as the only agreed means to establishing Iraqi compliance with UN resolutions. But after two years of repeated crises and broken Iraqi promises, it is clear the inspectors cannot do their job the way it needs to be done. Inspectors without access, without required documents, without a cooperating partner, can only do so much. A Potemkin inspection process is worse than no inspection process. Inspectors confined to hotels in Baghdad may as well be in Baltimore. We will not be a party to a phony arms control regime. And we will take action -- swift and sure -- if Iraq tries to rebuild its WMD. We will contain Saddam and provide succor to his people until he is gone. No one can predict when that will be. Our struggle with Saddam has not been easy, but compared to other tasks this nation has faced, neither should we overstate the burden. We contained the Soviet Union for 40 years -- and in the end, we prevailed. Saddam Hussein's Iraq is hardly the Soviet Union: he does not have 10,000 nuclear weapons; he does not have the largest army in the world; and he does not have the second largest economy in the world. Like the Soviet Empire, Saddam's days are numbered too. Through patience and perseverance, we will defeat him just as we have defeated so many other enemies of freedom. (end text)
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