DATE=7/6/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=BUSH/GORE/IRAQ
NUMBER=5-46621
BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The Clinton administration's inability to
achieve its stated goal of bringing about a change of
government in Iraq is shaping up as a key foreign
policy issue in this year's presidential campaign.
Last week, Vice President Al Gore met with members of
the Iraqi opposition, pledging to continue working to
overthrow President Saddam Hussein if elected to the
White House in November. His Republican Party
opponent, Texas Governor George W. Bush, shares that
objective, but differs on how to reach it. V-O-A's
Nick Simeone reports from Washington.
TEXT: Vice President Gore promised the London-based
Iraqi National Congress that if he becomes president
next January, there will be little difference between
his policy toward Saddam Hussein and that of President
Clinton.
/// GORE ACT ///
The United States will not flag in supporting
your efforts to promote a change of regime even
as we continue to contain the threat posed by
Saddam.
/// END ACT ///
But Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush -
- whose father put together the international
coalition that drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait nine
years ago -- has advocated a more aggressive stand
against Baghdad, with Bush campaign advisors wondering
why more was not done during the Clinton/Gore years to
oust the Iraqi leader. The Bush team has called the
Clinton/Gore policy toward Iraq a debacle.
One of Governor Bush's foreign policy advisors,
Richard Perle, charges the administration does not
have the courage of its convictions. Among other
things, he says the Clinton team has not done what is
necessary to enforce the Iraq Liberation Act, in which
Congress set aside millions of dollars to fund the
Iraqi opposition. Mr. Perle says only a small amount
of that money has actually been spent.
/// PERLE ACT ///
The administration could appoint one official,
just one, at a senior level who believes in the
goals and objectives of the Iraq Liberation Act
and who would honestly seek to implement the law
as the law has been written and approved. I
can't, as I look through the list of
administration officials responsible for this
policy, find a single official who is
sympathetic to the goals and objectives of the
Iraq Liberation Act.
/// END ACT ///
U-S officials say Washington has been slow in
disbursing money and equipment to the Iraqi National
Congress, largely because of infighting among its
members and problems with accountability.
Another issue emerging in U-S Iraq policy is the fact
that it has been more than 18 months since United
Nations weapons inspectors have been on the job in
Iraq, a situation that no longer appears to be a U-S
foreign policy priority.
Former chief United Nations weapons inspector Richard
Butler thinks it should be.
/// BUTLER ACT ///
The specific order of magnitude of Iraq's
military threat today can't be known accurately,
precisely, because there isn't an international
presence there to measure it. What can be said
with certainty is that absent international
inspection and as long as Iraq continues to
disobey the law, which it is today, it would be
utter folly to assume that they're not back in
the business of making weapons of mass
destruction.
/// END ACT ///
President Clinton often used to stress the need for
weapons inspectors to get back on the job, saying
Saddam Hussein is determined to use weapons of mass
destruction if he is allowed to rearm. Administration
officials say Iraq has now resumed short-range missile
tests. U-S officials are very concerned about such
activity, saying it underscores the need to get U-N
weapons inspectors back on the job.
But privately, they say Washington does not want to
provoke a fight with Iraq that could put American
servicemen in harm's way before November's
presidential election. (SIGNED)
NEB/NJS/JP
06-Jul-2000 16:55 PM EDT (06-Jul-2000 2055 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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