08/28/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10095

CHENEY ON IRAQI THREAT

As Vice President Dick Cheney made clear, the United States "will not live at the mercy of terrorists or terror regimes." That is why a fierce war is being waged against the al-Qaida terrorists who struck America last September 11^th. And that is why, said Mr. Cheney, the U.S. will not "look away" and "hope for the best" in regard to the threat posed by the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq.

"Simply stated," said Vice President Cheney, "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us."

As Mr. Cheney pointed out, this is the same Saddam Hussein whose forces regularly shoot "at American and British pilots in the no-fly zone [above northern and southern Iraq]. . .the same dictator who dispatched a team of assassins to murder former President Bush as he traveled abroad, the same dictator who invaded Iran and Kuwait, and has fired ballistic missiles at Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, the same dictator who has been on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism for the better part of two decades."

After his defeat in the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Saddam Hussein agreed under United Nations Security Council Resolution 6-8-7 to cease all development of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq agreed to admit U-N inspection teams to ensure compliance. But over the past decade, Iraq has systematically broken these agreements. For several years, Iraqi officials frustrated and deceived the U-N weapons inspectors. Then, in late 1998, they were kicked out of the country entirely. Meanwhile, Iraq has been busy improving its chemical and biological weapons and pursuing the nuclear weapons program it began so many years ago. "Many of us," said Vice President Cheney, "are convinced that Saddam will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon."

As Mr. Cheney stressed, "These are not weapons for the purpose of defending Iraq. These are offensive weapons for the purpose of inflicting death on a massive scale, developed so that Saddam can hold the threat over the head of anyone he chooses, in his own region or beyond."

In dealing with Iraq, the U.S. will proceed with care and deliberation, and will consult with its allies. But as Vice President Cheney said, "Deliverable weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terror network, or a murderous dictator, or the two working together, constitutes as grave a threat as can be imagined. The risks of inaction are far greater than the risk of action."