Qapla'!
Oh, so that's the way it's gonna be, is it?
Fine, I'll see your Klingon and raise you three Klingons!
Be Seeing You,
Chris
Posted on 08/29/2002 2:46:06 PM PDT by blam
Amid Worldwide Skepticism, Cheney Again Slams Iraq
Thu Aug 29, 4:57 PM ET
By Jim Forsyth
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday hammered home the U.S. case for pre-emptive action against Iraq, brushing off a groundswell of unease among European allies, Muslim states and broader world public opinion.
Cheney used a gathering of Korean War veterans to repeat an earlier indictment of Saddam Hussein , charging the Iraqi leader with acquiring weapons of mass destruction and posing a "mortal threat" to the United States.
He also downplayed concerns, laid out by some senior members of his Republican Party and echoed abroad, that a U.S. strike could hamper the global war on terrorism and undermine pro-U.S. governments in the Arab world.
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction," Cheney said, reprising a fighting speech he gave on Monday in Nashville, Tennessee. "There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use them against our friends, against our allies and against us," he said.
"The elected leaders of the country have a responsibility to consider all available options and we are doing so. What we must not do in the face of a mortal threat is to give in to wishful thinking or to willful blindness. We must not simply look away, hope for the best and leave the matter for some future administration to resolve," he said.
COOL RECEPTION ABROAD
Cheney's Nashville speech had sparked a fresh round of critical remarks in many states, including close European ally France, which questioned the right under international law of the United States to act unilaterally.
Congress, back next week from its summer recess, has announced hearings on Iraq, inviting senior administration figures to outline their proposed course of action.
A White House spokesman said U.S. officials would cooperate fully with the lawmakers. In July the administration had declined to take part in Senate hearings, saying it did not want to be locked into positions prematurely.
"What is important is that we have an agreement, an essential agreement among the American people, through their elected representatives in Congress, that the country is behind this effort in its own self defense against terrorist acts," House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt told CNN.
Meanwhile, foreign leaders pressed Washington to work with international weapons inspectors to rein in the Iraqi weapons program, and to seek U.N. approval for any future military campaign if inspections failed.
In his remarks on Thursday, Cheney responded to this, recalling what he called the Iraqi "science" of deceiving weapons inspectors in the past and saying a return to Iraq of inspection teams was no guarantee of disarmament.
French President Jacques Chirac said earlier on Thursday he was concerned by what he called a "temptation to seek to legitimize the use of unilateral and pre-emptive force." Any such attack, Chirac said, would require U.N. authorization.
TURMOIL IN ISLAMIC WORLD
Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke with German, British and Spanish foreign ministers in the last 24 hours, in part to discuss Iraq, his spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.
Powell was "taking up the fact that Iraq's defiance of the Security Council and development of weapons of mass destruction constitutes a danger that we have to deal with, and discussing with these countries how to deal with that," Boucher said.
Muslim leaders kept a united front of pressure on Washington to avert a strike against Iraq, saying it could unleash fresh turmoil in the Islamic world by widening a gulf between Muslims and the West.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak , both pivotal pro-U.S. figures in the Muslim world, joined the growing chorus of open opposition to proposed U.S. intervention.
White House officials stress no decision has been taken on a proposed military strike, and they have pledged to consult with U.S. allies and regional powers beforehand.
On the campaign trail in support of fellow Republican candidates in Oklahoma City, President Bush made no direct mention of U.S. determination to oust the Iraqi leader. But he made it clear Saddam remained on his mind.
"We must not allow the world's worst leaders to develop and harbor the world's worst weapons," Bush said at a fund-raising speech. The remark is his standard stump-speech line generally regarded as referring to Saddam.
I vote for turmoil and overthrowing the corrupt dictatorships in the Muslim world.
It isn't there families who wonder when and where the next terrorist attack takes place.
They should have to live less than 10 miles from a nuke plant ....and worry if something will happen all the while you have to live your life.
So all these naysayers can just stick it.....this is a struggle between US vs. THEM.....and we are going to see this thru!
France gets 80% of it's electrical needs from nuclear power plants.
Qapla'!
Oh, so that's the way it's gonna be, is it?
Fine, I'll see your Klingon and raise you three Klingons!
Be Seeing You,
Chris
I see this as well. I predict that the knee-jerk lieberals out there in media/government land are going to have egg on their face.
The national media will be wearing black armbands when Baghdad falls.
Mix any metaphors you like, Reuters, you're still tres full of sh!t.
groundswell--1) broad deep ocean swell caused by a distant gale or earthquake 2) rapid spontaneous growth--see also peeing one's pantaloons
And, about that oxymoron: European allies
A fatal paradox akin to a time machine roadtrip to moon der Fuerher--the world would explode, and the heavens fall.
European >>>>>>>BOOM<<<<<<< allies
Preposterous.
worldwide skepticism
Fine. They can have the skepticism. We have the most freedom and the highest standard of living. Gotta go with us.
fresh round of critical remarks in many states, including close European ally France
Non, monsieur, eet eez not fresh, zees scepticisme --eet eez stale.
close European ally France
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
très drôle!
la mère de tous les oxymorons!
We await Chirac and his foreign minister Dominique de Villepin speaking out against the burning of the Israeli Embassy in Paris. . . .
[crickets]
. . .and denouncing Saddam Hussein in the strongest terms. . . .
[plus de crickets]
Actually, Mr Vice-President, there is doubt, even within the Pentagon, on that.
Now, you have an incredible array of intelligence-gathering resources at your fingertips. Please collate the evidence, call a press conference, and present it to the world (or US allies, at least) so we can get on board the Iraqi Express without simultaneously giving our domestic Left a knife, and then turning our backs toward them.
I'll wake you when its over.
Seems like there is more and more material coming out on Saddam all the time, and it gets worse every day. I don't know if it is deliberate to build the sense of revulsion like this, but if the moderates in Europe and America are paying attention, they have to be revising their opinions. Saddam must go, if legal grounds are not enough, then for aesthetics.
"WIPE THEM OUT,ALL OF THEM"
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