10/02/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10165

IRAQ POSES A DANGER

The U.S. is sending a clear message to the world about the dangers posed by the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. The message is that the demands of the United Nations Security Council must be met. The Iraqi dictator must be disarmed of weapons of mass destruction. As President George W. Bush said, "These requirements will be met, or they will be enforced."

The danger from Iraq is clear. It is believed to possess ballistic missiles with ranges beyond the one-hundred-fifty kilometers permitted by the U-N Security Council resolutions and the regime seeks to acquire nuclear weapons. The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons. The Iraqi regime is building the facilities to make even more. And according to the British government, the Iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as forty-five minutes after the order is given.

Iraq has longstanding ties to terrorist organizations. "And," said President Bush, "there are al-Qaida terrorists inside Iraq. The regime is seeking a nuclear bomb, and...could build one within a year." Not only does Iraq possess chemical and biological weapons, but it also has a track record of demonstrated use of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq used chemical weapons in its war against Iran. Iraq has fired ballistic missiles at Israel, Saudi Arabia, and at coalition forces during the Gulf War. Iraq has used poison gas against Iraqi ethic groups, including Kurds. "The Iraq regime," said Mr. Bush, "practices the rape of women as a method of intimidation, and the torture of dissenters and their children."

For more than a decade, the Iraqi regime has answered U-N Security Council resolutions with defiance, bad faith, and deception. These resolutions require Iraq to disarm, to end its nuclear weapons program, to respect human rights, to ease its support for terrorists, to account for missing persons and property from the Gulf War era, and to eliminate all ballistic missiles with a range of over one hundred-fifty-kilometers.

President Bush said, we know Saddam "must be stopped. The dangers we face will only worsen from month to month and from year to year. To ignore these threats is to encourage them. And when they have fully materialized it may be too late to protect ourselves and our friends and our allies....We refuse to live in this future of fear."

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