Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=04/13/2003

TYPE=EDITORIAL

NUMBER=0-10555

TITLE=EDITORIAL: SADDAM'S LEGACY OF RUIN

INTERNET=Yes

CONTENT=THIS EDITORIAL IS BEING RELEASED FOR USE BY ALL SERVICES.

Anncr: Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government:

Voice: Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair described the plight of the people of Iraq under Saddam Hussein:

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"This is a regime that has brutalized its people for well over two decades. I have no doubt at all that the vast majority of ordinary Iraqi people are desperate for a better and different future." (END ACT)

When Saddam Hussein seized power in 1979, Iraq's economic prospects were bright. In 1980, Iraq had some thirty-five billion dollars in foreign exchange reserves. But Saddam Hussein's wars of aggression against Iran and Kuwait, massive military spending, and corruption have left Iraq with an external debt of some one-hundred billion dollars. Sixty percent of Iraqis are wholly dependent on the United Nations oil-for-food program. For years, the regime illegally smuggled oil outside of the U-N oil-for-food program and spent the proceeds to build palaces for Saddam Hussein and to buy weapons of every kind for his military and security forces.

Iraqis have been subjected to a police state terror unlike anything they had ever known. Thousands have been murdered, tortured, raped, and imprisoned. Iraqi military and security forces have attacked Iraqi civilians, including women and children, with conventional weapons and poison gas. Some two-million Iraqis became refugees. Millions more inside Iraq have lived in fear. Now, they live in hope. President George W. Bush explained why:

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"We will tear down the apparatus of terror and we will help you to build a new Iraq that is prosperous and free. In a free Iraq there will be no more wars of aggression against your neighbors. No more poison gas factories. No more executions of dissidents. No more torture chambers and rape rooms. The tyrant will soon be gone. The day of your liberation is near." (END ACT)

While Iraqis suffered, Saddam Hussein built monuments to himself throughout Iraq. Demolishing them is now a popular expression of the feelings of free Iraqi people toward the brutal dictator and his regime.

Anncr: That was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government. If you have a comment, please write to Editorials, V-O-A, Washington, D-C, 20237, U-S-A. You may also comment at www-dot-voanews-dot-com-slash-editorials, or fax us at (202) 619-1043.