They must figure the odds are better for them in a war than to tell Saddam what he does not want to hear.
Let's Roll!
Hope their life insurance policies are paid up.
Then again, I could be wrong. If so, the US military will perform a Saddam-extomy.
By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A key lawmaker told an emergency session of Parliament Monday that the Iraqi leadership should reject a tough, new U.N. resolution governing weapons inspections.
"The committee advises ... the rejection of Security Council Resolution 1441 and to not agree to it," Salim al-Koubaisi, head of the foreign relations committee, told lawmakers in the rubber-stamp Parliament.
President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), who is under a new U.N. demand for him to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, called the emergency session Sunday.
The open session of parliament was being shown live on Iraqi satellite television, a day after Arab ministers urged Baghdad to cooperate with weapons inspectors to avoid war.
"The ill intentions in this resolution are flagrant and loud in ignoring all the work that has been achieved in past years," said Parliament speaker Saadoun Hamadi, as he opened the special session.
Parliament's response to the new U.N. resolution, which demands Iraq cooperate with U.N. inspectors hunting for weapons of mass destruction, will be a recommendation to the Revolutionary Command Council, Iraq's major executive body headed by Saddam.
Should parliament recommend acceptance, Saddam would have some cover for retreating from previous objections to any new resolution governing weapons inspections.
Iraq has until Friday to accept or reject the resolution, approved unanimously by the 15-member U.N. Security Council last week. It threatens Iraq with "serious consequences" unless it cooperates.
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) dismissed the legislative gathering as "ludicrous."
"Saddam Hussein is an absolute dictator and tyrant, and the idea that somehow he expects the Iraqi parliament to debate this — they've never debated anything else," Rice said on ABC's "This Week." "I'm surprised he's even bothering to go through this ploy."
Senior Bush administration officials said the president has approved tentative Pentagon (news - web sites) plans for invading Iraq should a new U.N. arms inspection effort fail. The strategy calls for a land, sea and air force of 200,000 to 250,000 troops, officials said.
"Should military action become necessary for our own security, I will commit the full force and might of the United States military and we will prevail," President Bush (news - web sites) said Monday in a White House speech.
The resolution gives inspectors unrestricted access to any suspected weapons site and the right to interview Iraqi scientists outside the country and without Iraqi officials present — both issues that could become points of dispute.
Iraq has insisted on respect for its sovereignty, an argument it has used in the past to restrict access to Saddam's palaces.
On Sunday, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement on its Web site that U.S.-British aircraft enforcing a no-fly zone in southern Iraq fired precision-guided weapons at two surface-to-air missile sites near Talil, 175 miles southeast of Baghdad, in response to Iraqi hostile acts. There was no word from Baghdad on the strike, and the U.S. military said damage assessment was ongoing.
In Baghdad, the state-run al-Jumhuriya daily urged Arab governments and people on Monday to "stand firm against U.S. aggressive schemes" against Iraq and the Arabs. In a front-page editorial, the newspaper called on Arab governments to use oil as a weapon against the United States and Britain.
Saddam has called on Arab oil exporters to boycott the West before, but Gulf oil producers say such a move would be impractical and not in their interest.
In Cairo, foreign ministers of Arab League nations ended a two-day meeting with a final communique that seeks to avoid U.S.-Iraq confrontation.
It urges Iraq and the United Nations (news - web sites) to work together to implement the resolution and calls on the United States to commit to pledges it gave Syria that the resolution could not be used to justify military action.
"In our deliberations, the consensus was to deal with the Security Council resolution, accepting its direction, and this is left for the government of Iraq to decide," Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told reporters late Sunday after the meeting ended.
The Arab ministers put forward a united position of "absolute rejection" of any military action against Iraq, saying it represents a threat to the security of all Arab nations — a view Iraqi officials have pressed in recent lobbying of fellow Arab leaders.
They also demanded Arab experts be included on U.N. weapons inspection teams, but did not specify numbers or nationalities, and called on the Security Council to require Israel to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction.
In Damascus, the opposition Iraqi Communist Party in exile urged the government to accept the resolution, calling it "the last chance for a diplomatic and peaceful solution."
"No, no, strong fearless leader. You can stand up and prevail against them..."(while waving in the opposition) ??