SEPTEMBER 12, 10:46 ET
Bush Tells U.N. Saddam Poses Threat
By BARRY SCHWEIDAP Diplomatic Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Warning that Saddam Hussein poses a grave danger to peace, President Bush said Thursday that world leaders who have been reluctant to confront the threat must ``move deliberately and decisively to hold Iraq to account.''
``The just demands of peace and security will be met — or action will be unavoidable,'' Bush gravely warned. ``And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.''
``We cannot stand by and do nothing while dangers gather,'' Bush told the U.N. General Assembly. ``We must stand up for our security and for the permanent rights and hopes of mankind.''
Bush made his case against the backdrop of widespread hesitation among U.S. allies — and American lawmakers — to use force against Baghdad. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan cautioned the United States against taking action on its own without Security Council backing.
Bush's speech amounted to a challenge to the United Nations to live up to its responsibility.
``Iraq has answered a decade of U.N. demands with a decade of defiance,'' Bush said. ``All the world now faces a test ... and the United Nations, a difficult and defining moment. Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced ... or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding ... or will it be irrelevant?''
Bush offered to work in concert with other nations on a resolution ``to meet our common challenge.'' And, he said, ``if the Iraqi regime defies us again the world must move deliberately and decisively'' against the Iraqi leader.
Bush's expression of willingness to act through the United Nations appeared to respond to a growing chorus of opposition to unilateral U.S. military action to topple Saddam.
A senior U.S. official said Secretary of State Colin Powell would work on Friday with the four other permanent members of the Security Council — Russia, China, France and Britain — on a resolution that would set a deadline for Iraq to comply with demands that it admit weapons inspectors.
A failure to act, Bush said, would mean betting the lives of millions in a reckless gamble. ``And this is a risk we must not take,'' he declared.
``By heritage and by choice, the United States of America will make that stand,'' the president said. ``Delegates to the United Nations, you have the power to make that stand, as well!''
Bush said that if Iraq defies a new U.N. resolution demanding the return of inspectors, ``the world must move deliberately and decisively'' against Saddam.
Before Bush spoke, Annan warned against unilateralism and said any action against Iraq required the legitimacy of U.N. approval.
The senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not say what deadline would be set in a new resolution. But he did say the resolution would demand compliance within weeks, not months.
Already, U.S. military forces are being moved into position to strike against Iraq. Core staff of the U.S. military command responsible for operations in the Persian Gulf and Central Asia will be shifted from their headquarters in Florida to the Gulf nation of Qatar in November, defense officials said Wednesday.
In his speech, Bush denounced Iraq for a decade of defiance of U.N. resolutions calling for weapons inspections and disarmament. ``The conduct of the Iraqi regime is a threat to the authority of the United Nations and a threat to peace,'' he said.
On a personal note, Bush said that Iraq's violence and terrorism led to the attempted assassination of his father, former President George H.W. Bush and the emir of Kuwait in 1993.
``Saddam Hussein has made the case against himself,'' Bush said.
Reflecting long-standing impatience among some Americans with U.N. inaction on various fronts, Bush said, ``We created a United Nations Security Council so that — unlike the League of Nations — our actions would be more than talk.''
In fact, Bush said, ``We want the resolutions of the world's most important multinational body to be in force. Right now these resolutions are being unilaterally subverted by the Iraqi regime.''
TRANSLATION: We're goin in with or without you......