08/15/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10069

U.S. AND IRAQI OPPOSITION

The United States is serious about regime change in Iraq. Saddam Hussein has threatened and invaded his neighbors. He has used poison gas against his own people. He is amassing weapons of mass destruction. As President George W. Bush has said, "we owe it to our children and our children’s children to free the world from weapons of mass destruction in the hands of those who hate freedom."

President Bush has made no decision yet about how regime change in Iraq might be accomplished. But the United States is looking forward to an Iraq free of Saddam. Recently, U.S. officials met in Washington with representatives of the Iraqi opposition. The Iraqi group included leaders of the two largest Iraqi Kurd parties, secular and religious groups including Iranian-based Iraqi Shiites, and an umbrella organization, the Iraqi National Congress.

The U.S. and the representatives of the Iraqi opposition found common ground. According to U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker, "The United States and the Iraqi opposition share a vision of a better future for the Iraqi people after the departure of Saddam Hussein and his regime."

One aspect of that future is a united country. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, ‘we would like to see. . .a single country and not have Iraq broken into pieces." Sharif Ali Bin Al Hussein, spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress, said that the Iraqi opposition is committed to the territorial integrity of Iraq.

The United States and the Iraqi opposition also agreed that the best future for Iraq is a democratic one, where the people of the country have a voice in their own affairs. As State Department spokesman Reeker said, "Our vision is for a democratic Iraq with a government that respects the rights of its citizens."

The Iraqi people have suffered too long at the hands of a brutal dictatorship. The world has been threatened too long by a ruthless aggressor. A multi-ethnic, democratic Iraq is in the best interests of Iraqis and the world.