16 March 2003
Cheney: End of Diplomatic Phase on Iraq Is Approaching
(Threat will continue as long as Saddam remains in power, Cheney says) (720) By Howard Cincotta Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- Vice President Dick Cheney said that diplomatic efforts to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction are approaching an end, and he held out little hope that, at this late stage, Saddam Hussein would choose to compile with the terms of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441. Appearing March 16 on NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert and CBS's Face the Nation, Cheney said that the threat Saddam Hussein poses to the world will continue as long as he remains in power. "We have to assume that as soon as the world is looking the other way and preoccupied with other issues," Cheney said on Meet the Press, "he'll be back again rebuilding his biological- and chemical-war capabilities, and once again reconstituting his nuclear program." On Face the Nation, Cheney said, "Our goals and the objectives of the Iraqi people in the opposition are to establish a broadly representative government in Iraq that has due regard for the various groups, for human rights, and protects the territorial integrity of Iraq." Asked on Meet the Press about why the United States felt compelled to lead a coalition to disarm Saddam Hussein, Cheney stressed the degree to which the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, had transformed the world. During the Cold War, Cheney observed, a policy of containment proved successful in dealing with the Soviet Union. That is no longer the case, Cheney argued, in an era when terrorists such as al Qaeda, which cannot be deterred or contained like nations, find sanctuary in rogue states such as Iraq, or in areas that are outside any effective government control. Cheney said on Meet the Press, "We are now faced with a situation, especially in the aftermath of 9/11, where the threat to the United States is increasing, and over time, given Saddam's posture there, given the fact that he has a significant flow of cash as a result of the oil production of Iraq, it's only a matter of time until he acquires nuclear weapons. In light of that, we have to be prepared I think to take the action that is being contemplated, to insist that he disarm. And if the U.N. won't do it, then the United States and other partners of the coalition will have to do that." Europe tends to look at its remarkable success at peaceful political and economic integration, Cheney said, and conclude that the world operates much the same way. By contrast, the U.S. has a different perception - in large part because of the 9/11 attacks that killed 3,000 people in the space of several hours. Yet those attacks "would pale into insignificance if they had a nuclear weapon or unleashed other weapons of mass destruction," Cheney observed. After 9/11, Cheney said on Meet the Press, "The President said 'no more,' and enunciated the Bush doctrine: that we will hold states that sponsor terror, that provide sanctuary for terrorists, to account -- that they will be treated as guilty as the terrorists themselves." Cheney was sharply critical of the French record on Iraq, saying on Meet the Press that "they have consistently opposed efforts to hold Saddam Hussein accountable for his actions." He noted that France refused to find Saddam Hussein in material breach of U.N. resolutions in 1995, opposed a resolution condemning Iraq's treatment of the Kurds in 1996, announced that Iraq was free of weapons of mass destruction in 1998, and opposed the creation of the UNMOVIC, the current U.N. inspections organization, in 1999. "We've had 12 years of resolution, of speeches, of pronouncements, of meetings, and the U.N. has yet to enforce any of those resolutions," he said on Face the Nation. Cheney reiterated the U.S. commitment to assisting in the reconstruction of a post-Saddam Iraq, and predicted that many Iraqis would greet the United States and other coalition members as liberators. The Iraqi opposition, Cheney said on Meet the Press, "understands the importance of preserving and building on an Iraqi national identity." (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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