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SADDAM TO BUSH: YOU STEP DOWN
March 19, 2003 -- As swarms of U.S. forces repositioned closer to Iraq's border, Saddam Hussein yesterday defiantly rejected President Bush's ultimatum to flee Iraq, and his foreign minister thumbed his nose at Bush, calling him a despot who should leave office. In response, the White House wouldn't rule out launching an invasion before Bush's 48-hour clock runs out at 8 p.m. On national television Monday night, Bush gave the Iraqi dictator two days to go into exile with his two sons or face a massive invasion force of 280,000 U.S. and British troops. Twelve hours later, Saddam appeared in military garb on Iraqi television.
 "This battle will be the last war for Iraq for a while against any arrogant [power] and the last aggressive war launched by America against the world for a while," Saddam said. "God willing, victory will be yours and your enemy will be repelled because it is on the side of falsehood." Responding to the Iraqi defiance, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, "Iraq has made a series of mistakes, including arming themselves with weapons of mass destruction that have brought this crisis upon itself. "This is the latest mistake Iraq could make. It would be Saddam's final mistake," Fleischer said. "The president still hopes he will take the ultimatum seriously and leave the country." But Fleischer would not rule out a U.S. attack before the 48-hour clock ran out if the Iraqi leader rejects the exile offer. In the Middle East, U.S. commanders rechecked their war plans, aircraft carriers loaded up on bombs and infantry soldiers waited for final orders as the Pentagon pushed its battle preparations into high gear. Equipment, supplies and troops continued to arrive in Kuwait. "I'm kind of excited, wanting to see if we go north. The faster we do, the faster we go home," said Spc. Servando Diaz of San Jose, Calif. Seeking to bolster his "coalition of the willing," Bush reached out to the leaders of Russia and China, two nations that resisted U.S. efforts to set a U.N. ultimatum for using force. But Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao said they still preferred a U.N.-brokered solution. Putin and Bush "openly acknowledged that they don't see eye-to-eye on whether or not force should be used to disarm Saddam Hussein," Fleischer said. "They agree about the threats in the region." Hu told Bush that China hopes for "peace instead of war" and wants a political settlement through the United Nations. Secretary of State Colin Powell said 30 nations will support the United States in a war on Iraq - and more than a dozen others back war privately. "We now have a coalition of the willing that includes some 30 nations who publicly said they could be included in such a listing," Powell said, "and there are 15 other nations, for one reason or another, who do not wish to be publicly named but will be supporting the coalition." In other developments: * Turkey said yesterday that it would present its parliament with a motion to let Iraq-bound U.S. troops and equipment use its airspace. The parliament had rejected a broader request to let the United States open a northern front against Iraq in Turkey. For now, the United States has not renewed that request, officials said. * An Iraqi seaman was killed in the war's first skirmish yesterday, when a Kuwaiti gunboat fired on Iraqi minelayers in the Khawr al-Zubayr River, which separates the two countries.* Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri issued a stinging attack on Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, calling them despots, war criminals and liars. "For the window of diplomacy to open is for the two despots in Washington and London to leave office," Sabri said. Speaking of Bush, he said, "How can an ignorant, idiot man become president of the United States? A man who doesn't know if Spain is a kingdom or a republic?" * The U.S. military continued bombarding military units in the southern Iraq with leaflets, broadcasts and e-mails urging them to surrender. U.S. officials said the leaflets aim to persuade the Iraqi forces to step aside when U.S. troops sweep north from Kuwait to the oil fields around Basra en route to Baghdad.
With Post Wire Services *************************************** "The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms
is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in
government."
-- Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 **************************************** http://www.patriotsforpeace.org/ http://www.winwithoutwarus.org/ http://www.truemajority.org/ http://www.notinourname.net/ http://www.endthewar.org/ http://www.internationalanswer.org/ http://www.peacepledge.org/ http://www.citiesforpeace.org/ ****************************** Ain't Karma A Bitch! |
