Posted on 03/17/2003 8:32:14 AM PST by Indy Pendance
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Abandoning diplomacy, President Bush gave Saddam Hussein a final ultimatum Monday to leave Iraq or face a U.S.-led war. The president planned an address to the nation at 8 p.m. to explain his decision.
"This matter cannot continue indefinitely," Secretary of State Colin Powell said.
The development came as the United States, Britain and Spain ended diplomatic efforts in the United Nations to disarm Saddam Hussein, withdrawing their proposed resolution setting an ultimatum and clearing the way for a U.S.-led war without Security Council approval.
"It was our judgment that no further purpose would be served by pushing this resolution," Powell said.
Bush and his advisers were still debating whether to give Saddam a deadline to leave. The prevailing sentiment was that a timetable would be a bad idea.
Whether Bush sets a deadline or not, officials said war is days away.
Ahead of the speech, top congressional leaders were to go to the White House to meet with the president.
Bush's speech, scheduled to run anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, was to include a warning for humanitarian workers and journalists to leave the country, officials said. Bush planned to warn them that Saddam has a history of taking hostages, they said.
Powell, in a news conference at the State Department, said that Bush in his address would assert that leaving Iraq was the only way for Saddam to avoid war.
Powell said that those who must leave Iraq include Saddam and "immediate members of his family."
The U.S. decision came a day after Bush and the leaders of Britain, Spain and Portugal held a brief summit on Azores Island and agreed to give U.N. diplomacy one last day.
However, that decision was cut short. Powell said the move to quit diplomatic efforts was made after "we spent a great deal of time overnight and early this morning talking to friends and colleagues."
"The time for diplomacy has passed," Powell said. "I can think of nothing that Saddam Hussein could do diplomatically - I think that time is now over. He's had his chance, he's had many chances over the last 12 years and he's blown every one of those chances."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer had similar comments, saying, "The diplomatic window has closed as a result of the U.N.'s failure to enforce its own resolutions for Saddam to disarm," Fleischer said.
Powell said that discussions were continuing with Turkey despite its legislature's decision not to allow that country's soil to be used for a northern offensive. The Turkish government fears that war in Iraq would cause an uprising among Kurds in northern Iraq, including a possible attempt to create their own state.
"We've assured the Turks that we are committed to the territorial integrity of Iraq," Powell said.
At the U.N., John Negroponte, U.S. ambassador to the world body, told reporters, "It has been nearly 4 1/2 months since the council unanimously adopted 1441 which found Iraq in material breach and gave it a final opportunity to disarm. The government of Iraq has clearly failed to comply."
Fleischer's call for Saddam's exile echoed Bush's words Sunday at a news conference in the Azores. Speaking of Saddam, the president said, "He got to decide whether he's going to disarm, and he didn't. He can decide whether he wants to leave the country."
Hours earlier, Saddam threatened a wider war if attacked.
"We hope tomorrow the U.N. will do its job," Bush said at a news conference where he and the leaders of Britain, Spain and Portugal met.
Fleischer said U.S. officials were reviewing whether to raise the national terror alert.
First thing Monday, several top administration officials filed into the White House. The group included Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Also Monday, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, announced that the Bush administration had advised the agency to start pulling its inspectors out of Iraq.
Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and their summit partners met Sunday at a U.S. air base in the Azores as the American-led military buildup in the Persian Gulf continued. More than 250,000 troops, a naval armada and an estimated 1,000 combat aircraft are in the region, ready to strike if and when the president gives the word.
The American public, by a 2-1 margin, supports military action against Iraq to remove Saddam, a slight increase in support from recent weeks, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll out Monday.
French President Jacques Chirac had said Sunday he was willing to accept a 30-day deadline for Iraq to disarm, provided the move was endorsed by U.N. weapons inspectors. "We just feel that there is another option, another way, a more normal war, a less dramatic way than war," he said in an interview on CBS "60 Minutes."
Vice President Dick Cheney brushed aside Chirac's proposal, listing a series of French actions in recent years he said had let Saddam avoid disarmament. And Bush also was scornful of France's role in the diplomatic struggle over Iraq.
Noting he had called earlier this month for Security Council members to take a stand, he said: "France showed their cards. After I said what I said, they said they were going to veto anything that held Saddam to account."
Blair, flying home from the summit Sunday evening, told reporters that diplomats would work through the night to try and find common ground.
"People have got to decide whether they are going to allow any ... resolution to have teeth, to make it clear that there is a real ultimatum in it, and that's what we need to find out overnight," he said. "You cannot have a resolution which simply stipulates further discussion."
In Baghdad, Saddam was unbowed. "When the enemy starts a large-scale battle, he must realize that the battle between us will be open wherever there is sky, land and water in the entire world," he told his military commanders in remarks carried by the official Iraqi news agency.
Saddam also denied his nation possesses chemical weapons, as alleged.
There were unambiguous signs that war could occur within a short period of time.
The State Department on Sunday night ordered nonessential personnel and all family members to leave Israel, Kuwait and Syria in a precautionary move. The departure order updates an advisory last month that authorized those people to leave voluntarily.
Bush said war could be averted if Saddam were to leave the country. There was no indication that would happen, however.
At their summit, Bush, Blair, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso issued a formal statement that said "any military presence, should it be necessary, will be temporary ... Our commitment to support the people of Iraq will be for a long time."
Wars been declared and the surrender terms have been issued to the leader.
Leaving would prevent a war, but it wouldn't prevent him from being killed or captured to face charges as a war criminal.
Why am I not surprised to learn this?
Suppose he did. Wouldn't he have enough mad henchmen left there to keep the snake pit going? Just substitute Terrorist Dictator B for Terrorist Dictator A?
This has either been an elaborate setup to destroy our credibility and turn the world even more against us, or he is planning on sneaking out and then unleashing everything he has.
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So a bunch of Islamics from egypt or Saudi flew airplaines into buildings and now Bush tells Saddam he is exiled from what he considers to be his own country. This is fun to watch.
Ta koonaeoo botcha gende!
Thanks for the unbiased reporting, AP...
Although it would not affect the military action or the outcome, I believe it does have impact on the awarding of medals etc.
Any military folks have info?
De Jure only Congress can do that.
De Facto issuing an ultimatum to a sovereign country that the it's leader leave or face armed force is a declaration of war.
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