A Decade of Deception and Defiance
AudioPosted on 09/14/2002 12:12:03 PM PDT by Salvation
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 14, 2002
Radio Address by the President to the Nation
A Decade of Deception and Defiance
Audio
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Today I'm meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi about the growing danger posed by Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, and the unique opportunity the U.N. Security Council has to confront it.
I appreciate the Prime Minister's public support for effective international action to deal with this danger. The Italian Prime Minister joins other concerned world leaders who have called on the world to act. Among them, Prime Minister Blair of Great Britain, Prime Minister Aznar of Spain, President Kwasniewski of Poland. These leaders have reached the same conclusion I have -- that Saddam Hussein has made the case against himself.
He has broken every pledge he made to the United Nations and the world since his invasion of Kuwait was rolled back in 1991. Sixteen times the United Nations Security Council has passed resolutions designed to ensure that Iraq does not pose a threat to international peace and security. Saddam Hussein has violated every one of these 16 resolutions -- not once, but many times.
Saddam Hussein's regime continues to support terrorist groups and to oppress its civilian population. It refuses to account for missing Gulf War personnel, or to end illicit trade outside the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. And although the regime agreed in 1991 to destroy and stop developing all weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles, it has broken every aspect of this fundamental pledge.
Today this regime likely maintains stockpiles of chemical and biological agents, and is improving and expanding facilities capable of producing chemical and biological weapons. Today Saddam Hussein has the scientists and infrastructure for a nuclear weapons program, and has illicitly sought to purchase the equipment needed to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon. Should his regime acquire fissile material, it would be able to build a nuclear weapon within a year.
The former head of the U.N. team investigating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, Richard Butler, reached this conclusion after years of experience: "The fundamental problem with Iraq remains the nature of the regime itself. Saddam Hussein is a homicidal dictator who is addicted to weapons of mass destruction."
By supporting terrorist groups, repressing its own people and pursuing weapons of mass destruction in defiance of a decade of U.N. resolutions, Saddam Hussein's regime has proven itself a grave and gathering danger. To suggest otherwise is to hope against the evidence. To assume this regime's good faith is to bet the lives of millions and the peace of the world in a reckless gamble. And this is a risk we must not take.
Saddam Hussein's defiance has confronted the United Nations with a difficult and defining moment: Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purposes of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?
As the United Nations prepares an effective response to Iraq's defense, I also welcome next week's congressional hearings on the threats Saddam Hussein's brutal regime poses to our country and the entire world. Congress must make it unmistakably clear that when it comes to confronting the growing danger posed by Iraq's efforts to develop or acquire weapons of mass destruction, the status quo is totally unacceptable.
The issue is straightforward: We must choose between a world of fear, or a world of progress. We must stand up for our security and for the demands of human dignity. By heritage and choice, the United States will make that stand. The world community must do so, as well.
Thank you for listening.
END
Including you, Tommy Dashcle.
...Congress must make it unmistakably clear that when it comes to confronting the growing danger posed by Iraq's efforts to develop or acquire weapons of mass destruction, the status quo is totally unacceptable.
See? Told ya having a President with a strong business background was good.
He even knows how to hold a sale...
This speech, (today only), get two, two smacks for the price of one!
UN?
SMACK!
Congress ("the Daschle special")?
SMACK!
How true, how true!
I bet little Tommy did NOT have this on next week's schedule! LOL!
I thought they did have plans to discuss this next week, or am I wrong here? (And if they did have plans, I'm sure little Tommy fufu wasn't planning on anything serious action.)
Keep your eyes on this race!! If McCall (thanks to the Clintons) should pull off a win, you can expect that Hillary will definitely be campaigning for the White House in 200.
While she slipped into NY like the snake she is, it was a "herd" vote, led by very distinct groups and the dominance of Dems in NY (same thing). I don't believe the "herd" vote would hold up nationwide.
The bottom line is she just doesn't have the knowledge or presence to act for the "high ideals" of the American people. She's a frightening lady and I will do everything I can to make sure she never holds another elected position.
I do think she would make some serious mistakes if they took away her "scripted" appearances and that is yet to came. I picture the DNC lecturing her everyday about "shutting her big mouth".
I have yet to hear her speak off the cuff. I don't think she can do it and come out still standing on her marshmallow pedestal.
Sac
He'd be taller at least. Wouldn't have to wear his lifts!
LOL. SOT
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