24 September 2002
Byliner: Waiting to Hear From Saddam Hussein
(Op-ed from New York Times on 09/24/02) (540) (This column by Nick J. Rahall II, a Democrat, who is a U.S. Representative from West Virginia, first appeared in The New York Times on September 24, 2002 and is in the public domain. No republication restrictions.) (begin byliner) Waiting to Hear From Saddam Hussein By Nick J. Rahall II Washington -- On the packed flight from Damascus to Baghdad I kept rehearsing the message I hoped to deliver personally to Saddam Hussein: The only chance you have to avert the further devastation and suffering of your country and people is to allow unconditional and unfettered access by United Nations weapons inspectors. Period. Full cooperation. No gimmicks. I felt the message and the moment were ripe if the fruits of peace were to be harvested. I was not going to vote to put American soldiers in harm's way without making this last effort. As an Arab-American member of Congress -- and as someone who has traveled extensively in the region and who has questioned American policy in the Middle East under Republican and Democratic presidents -- I felt that I was a credible messenger. I was traveling to Iraq as part of a delegation sponsored by the Institute for Public Accuracy, a nonpartisan group. We were met at the airport by representatives of the foreign minister's office. Our hosts wanted to take us immediately to a facility that had been identified as a possible nuclear weapons factory -- they wanted to prove that the charges were false. I declined, stating that I was not a weapons inspector and was not going to be put in the position of vouching for anyone's innocence. The rest of the group refused to go, too. Things went downhill from there. Our satellite phone was confiscated and our cameras, after nearly being impounded, were painstakingly "registered." V.I.P. treatment meant being the last ones through security. We soon learned that we would not be meeting with Mr. Hussein and that my speech before the Iraqi National Assembly had been canceled. So much for direct communication. Over the next two days, I did my best to share my message with anyone who would listen. We talked with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and the speaker of the national assembly, who said, "We are damned if we do, damned if we don't, as your country says. It doesn't matter: we'll get hit." On Saturday night, after our meeting with Mr. Aziz, we had dinner at a beautiful outdoor restaurant by the Tigris River. A soft breeze carried the smell of local fish roasting over an open flame. The strains of popular Arab music filtered out of a nearby house. The scene of Baghdad at dusk -- its calm -- moved me, and I was saddened at the thought of the devastation war would bring. I was further moved the next night, when we had the opportunity to meet quietly with some people in a private home. As we sat in a courtyard, they agreed with us in their own way that Mr. Hussein must be removed, though they felt that America should not be the agent of that change. Still, they were pessimistic about the future. Mr. Hussein, they said, did not hear their voices. After two days in Baghdad, I know the feeling. (Nick J. Rahall II, a Democrat, is a representative from West Virginia.) (end byliner) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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