U.S. strikes Iraq
Posted on 03/20/2003 2:33:56 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
U.S. strikes Iraq
Success of initial stage of war 'too early to tell'
03/20/2003
WASHINGTON – President Bush took the nation to war in the Persian Gulf again Wednesday night, launching a campaign to crush the regime of Saddam Hussein and root out the weapons of mass destruction that the president has warned threaten the world.
Addressing the nation little more than two hours after the deadline he gave the Iraqi leader to flee, Mr. Bush said he had ordered airstrikes at "selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war."
The president offered no details, but he promised a "broad and concerted" drive to "disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger."
"I assure you, this will not be a campaign of half-measures," he said, "and we will accept no outcome but victory."
The airstrikes, a combination of cruise missiles fired from warships and bombs from stealth fighter-bombers, were limited but appeared to target Mr. Hussein in Baghdad.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would say only that the targets were "very senior" leaders. As for whether the strikes were successful, the official said, "It's too early to tell."
Four hours later, though, Mr. Hussein, in a full military uniform with a black beret, appeared on Iraqi television to denounce Mr. Bush as the "criminal Junior Bush."
"You are victorious with the will of God," Mr. Hussein told his fellow Iraqis, "and your enemies will be in humiliation and defeat, God willing."
Poised for combat in the gulf were nearly 250,000 U.S. military personnel and another 40,000 British troops, backed by 1,000 warplanes and a fleet of aircraft carriers and other ships.
Army and Marine divisions rolled into new formations in northeastern Kuwait, awaiting orders to invade.
But there were no indications that the punishing "shock and awe" airstrikes that the Pentagon had planned were near or that large numbers of troops had entered Iraq from Kuwait and other points.
In his four-minute, nationally televised address from the Oval Office, Mr. Bush said that more than 35 countries were supporting the United States in the war that followed weeks of failed diplomacy in the United Nations.
Only Britain and a few other countries, though, were providing combat troops. At least 15 other countries were offering bases, airspace or other assistance.
In Baghdad, air-raid sirens wailed and anti-aircraft traces flashed in the pre-dawn skies less than two hours after Mr. Bush's deadline.
Earlier, Mr. Hussein and the top echelon of his regime had remained defiant, having ignored the ultimatum Mr. Bush gave Monday night that Mr. Hussein and his sons must leave the country within two days.
Mr. Bush had given Mr. Hussein 48 hours' notice, demanding he flee Iraq by 7 p.m. Dallas time Wednesday to avert war. But the Iraqi leader and his top lieutenants quickly and repeatedly dismissed the ultimatum out of hand.
"That's impossible," Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said in Baghdad after reports that he had defected.
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A direct threat
Mr. Bush has been determined to disarm Iraq since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
While he has offered no direct link between Mr. Hussein and the attacks, the president has repeatedly warned that Iraq is a direct threat to the nation's security and that of the rest of the world.
He has charged that Mr. Hussein has trained, financed and harbored terrorists who would be eager to use any of Iraq's most deadly weapons to attack the United States or any other nation.
"We are determined to confront threats wherever they arise," Mr. Bush vowed as he prepared the nation for war. "I will not leave the American people at the mercy of the Iraqi dictator and his weapons."
Still, as he has relentlessly made his case against Mr. Hussein, Mr. Bush has seldom talked of the risks of war or the sacrifices that come with it.
On Wednesday, though, he assured the nation that "our purpose is sure."
"The people of the United States and their friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder," the president said.
"For your sacrifice," he told the nation's military families, "you have the gratitude and respect of the American people, and you can know that our forces will be coming home as soon as their work is done."
Still, he warned of difficult battles ahead.
"A campaign on the harsh terrain of a nation as large as California could be longer and more difficult than some predict," Mr. Bush said, "and helping Iraqis achieve a united, stable and free country will require our sustained effort."
Now that war had come, he promised "decisive force," but he pledged that U.S. forces would make every effort to avoid civilian Iraqi casualties.
Father's footsteps
Mr. Bush addressed the nation from the same desk used by his father to announce the massive airstrikes that launched the first Persian Gulf War a dozen years ago. Iraq had invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, and after building an unprecedented international coalition, Mr. Bush's father made war to drive the Iraqis out.
That war ended six weeks later after only a 100-hour ground campaign. But the allied forces stopped far short of Baghdad, leaving Mr. Hussein with a devastated military but still in power.
In this war, President Bush has left no doubt that the U.S.-led invasion force will take Baghdad in search of Mr. Hussein, his two sons and other leaders of his regime. And the troops will destroy whatever weapons of mass destruction they can find.
"The danger is clear," Mr. Bush said Monday night when he gave Mr. Hussein his ultimatum. "Using chemical, biological or one day nuclear weapons, obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country, or any other."
"Before the day of horror can come, before it is too late to act," he vowed, "this danger will be removed."
Invasion order
Mr. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq after weeks of diplomatic wrangling in the United Nations failed to secure renewed authority to use military force against Iraq.
But he said on Monday when he declared diplomacy dead that he had full authority to act under his constitutional obligation to defend the nation and under the Nov. 8 resolution from the U.N. Security Council to disarm Iraq.
Congress also gave him authority last fall to move militarily against Iraq, should diplomacy fail.
And on Wednesday, the White House said the president had officially notified Congress that "diplomatic and other peaceful means alone" could not protect the United States from the "continuing threat posed by Iraq."
Pressed at mid-day on whether Mr. Bush had at least made the "conceptual decision" to go to war, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer cited the president's Monday night speech.
"There's no question about that," Mr. Fleischer said. "The president made that clear to the American people the other night."
At 8:46 p.m. Dallas time, Mr. Fleischer returned to the press briefing room to announce the president would be addressing the nation in half an hour.
"The early stages of the disarmament of the Iraqi regime have begun," Mr. Fleischer said.
Again on Wednesday, Mr. Bush remained secluded at the White House, conferring with his national security advisers, as final preparations were made for war at home and abroad.
Mr. Bush telephoned his staunchest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has been under relentless public and political pressure to avert war without further U.N. support. And he met in the Oval Office with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to discuss the increasing likelihood of terrorist attacks.
"The president's made his decision. He said that clearly the other night that Saddam Hussein had 48 hours to leave, or we were going to take military action," Mr. Bloomberg told reporters afterward. "I think, at this point, the debate's over."
And the mayor foresaw no turning back, reiterating that the president had set the nation on a course of war and was determined to press ahead.
"He's not going to be cowed or dissuaded," Mr. Bloomberg said. "He's going to go out there and do what we all pray is right. And I happen to have great hopes, like everybody else does, that any military action will be quick and decisive and successful."
'Very much focused'
The Washington Post reported that on Wednesday afternoon, CIA Director George Tenet offered Mr. Bush a chance to attack Mr. Hussein and other top Iraqi leaders.
Mr. Tenet told the president that U.S. intelligence not only knew where Mr. Hussein was in southern Baghdad but also was sure that he would stay there for hours. With Mr. Hussein's obsessive security and frequent movement, the opportunity was rare, and Mr. Bush jumped at the chance, revamping war plans on the fly, the newspaper said.
The president authorized the airstrikes after what aides called an unusual 361/27 hour afternoon meeting of his war council, officials said. He formally issued the order to strike shortly before 6 p.m. Dallas time.
"The president's state of mind is very much focused on the mission and the country – he believes the mission will protect the country," said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
After the meeting, Mr. Bush conferred briefly with his chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson.
Then, the president had dinner with first lady Laura Bush in the residence of the White House. And shortly after the exile deadline passed, Chief of Staff Andrew Card telephoned Mr. Bush to tell him that, based on reports from CIA and the National Security Agency, Mr. Hussein had not left the country.
Mr. Bush worked on his speech before returning to the Oval Office for his nationally televised address.
Finally, just before he began to speak from his desk, an aide said, Mr. Bush looked around the room, pumped his fist and said, "Feel good."
Staff writers David Jackson and Michelle Mittelstadt contributed to this report.
E-mail bhillman@dallasnews.com
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The double is much narrower in the shoulders than Saddam as well.
I suspect the beret is to conceal a different hairline.
So I can't post those here on FR without uploading to my site, correct? I saved it on my favorites.
Thanks ! . . .
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