White House-Saddam refusal paves way for war

Reuters | Wednesday, March 19, 2003 | By Steve Holland

[JohnHuang2]

White House-Saddam refusal paves way for war

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's refusal to leave Iraq by a deadline on Wednesday night cleared the way for war, the White House said.

Bush was informed of Saddam's refusal to accept the U.S.-imposed 48-hour deadline by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Bush had just had dinner with his wife Laura after hashing over war plans with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer noted the passing of the deadline by saying: "The disarmament of the Iraqi regime will begin at a time of the president's choosing."

Bush was expected to address the American people once hostilities began. White House officials said the speech, already drafted, would be delivered on short notice.

Americans, said Fleischer, "understand what is at stake."

"The military is ready, the nation is ready, and the cause is just," he said.

Bush had given Saddam and his two sons until 8 p.m. EST on Wednesday (0100 GMT Thursday) -- 4 a.m. in Baghdad -- to leave his country or face attack. Bush was sitting in his living room upstairs at the White House when Card called him to tell him the offer had been ignored.

Card had checked with the CIA and Bush's national security team to see if they had any indication that Saddam left Iraq.

The White House cautioned Americans to be prepared for the possibility of casualties in a war of uncertain length.

"On the brink of war with Iraq, Americans should be prepared for what we hope will be as precise and short a conflict as possible, but there are many unknowns. It could be a matter of some duration, we do not know," Fleischer said.

Saddam's refusal was completely expected, since he had shown no inclination to accept previous entreaties that he avoid war by going into exile.

Yet it forced Bush to make the gravest decision a president can undertake, to send U.S. forces into battle against what the U.S. military hopes will be a weak enemy but one that could respond with weapons of mass destruction.

After meeting Bush at the White House to discuss security needs, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said of the pending war, "there's been a healthy discussion in this country about what the appropriate course of action is, the president has listened and he's made his decision."

The mood inside the White House was serious, and there was tension outside its heavily protected gates. Barricades and police vehicles lined Pennsylvania Avenue. About 250 protesters spent much of the day yelling slogans from across Lafayette Park.

"If the war breaks out, walk out!" they chanted.

The FBI warned police to be on the lookout for suspicious activities by vehicles with Iraqi diplomatic license plates. Bush said Monday individuals with ties to Iraqi intelligence had been expelled to guard against possible retaliatory terror attacks.

Bush notified Congress on Tuesday night, under terms of a resolution passed in 2002 authorizing force against Iraq, that diplomacy had failed to reduce the Iraqi threat or enforce U.N. disarmament demands. The notice was required before or within 48 hours of the start of war. It was released on Wednesday.

His notice was accompanied by a report saying war on Iraq "would directly advance the war on terror." The assertion aims to meet demands by Congress in its authorizing resolution that any war be consistent with the anti-terrorism campaign Bush launched in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Bush has given no clear evidence tying Iraq to the attacks, and critics have questioned U.S. attempts to link Saddam to the al Qaeda network blamed for the attacks.

The report also said Bush had authority to act under the U.S. Constitution, the U.N. charter and previous U.N. resolutions on Iraq. France, which led a successful effort in the U.N. Security Council to block a war resolution, said on Wednesday that only the council has the authority to authorize force and the world opposed Bush's ultimatum.