Posted on 03/14/2003 10:27:18 AM PST by PhilipFreneau
Q: Now, Ambassador Richardson with the U.N., and others in the administration have said the military option -- just to pick up, just to continue your sentence -- the military option remains on the table. The Ambassador from Iraq to the U.N. was on our program recently and he pretty much acknowledged that Iraq is banking on that not being real, that the U.S. alone is not going to go in there and take out some suspected anthrax facility, particularly if it's in the palace where Saddam Hussein lives, et cetera, et cetera.
CLINTON: The United States does not relish moving alone, because we live in a world that is increasingly interdependent. We'd like to be partners with other people. But sometimes we have to be prepared to move alone. You used the anthrax example. Think how many people can be killed by just a tiny bit of anthrax. And think about how it's not just a question of whether Saddam Hussein might put them on a Scud missile, an anthrax head, and send it to some city of people he wanted to destroy. Think about all the terrorists and drug runners and other bad actors that could just parade through Baghdad to pick up their stores if we don't take the strongest possible action.
I far prefer the United Nations. I far prefer the inspectors. I have been far from trigger-happy on this thing. But if they really believe that there are no circumstances under which we would act alone, they are sadly mistaken. And that is not a threat. I have shown that I do not relish this sort of thing. Every time it's discussed around here, I said, you know, one of the great luxuries of being the world's only superpower for a while -- and it won't last forever probably, but for a while -- is that there is always time enough to kill. And, therefore, we have a moral responsibility to show restraint and to seek partnerships and alliances. And I've done that.
But I don't want to have to explain to my grandchildren why we took a powder on what we think is a very serious biological and chemical weapons program, potentially, by a country that has already used chemical weapons on the Iranians and on the Kurds -- their own people.
(Excerpt) Read more at usembassy-israel.org.il ...
So this is the clever little fellow that started this deception.
For the record Iraq has only used WMDs on thier enemies. The Kurds are not their own people but rather a politically and culturally seperate peoples that the Brits tried to force under Iraki control, without success.
Much to his discredit, George Bush continues this decption today.
The Kurds in the North and the Shiites in the South make up 82% of the population. The Arabs (e.g., Saddam and his gangsters) make up only 18% of the population. Iraq is controlled by the tyranny of the minority. According to you, Iraq has used WMD only on their enemies? But the truth is the tyrant that brutally controls Iraq used WMD on the Iraqi people.
My point exactly.
Whos truth?
BTW Here's the latest population estimates.
Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkoman, Assyrian or other 5% according to the current CIA Word Factbook.
Hope this helps.
The Kurds in the North and the Shiites in the South make up 82% of the population. The Arabs (e.g., Saddam and his gangsters) make up only 18% of the population> BTW Here's the latest population estimates.
Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkoman, Assyrian or other 5% according to the current CIA Word Factbook.
Hope this helps.
According to a recent mainstream news program (ABC most likely ... can't recall) the Shiites comprised 61% of the population. Today, the Tampa Tribune stated the Shiite majority was 55% of the population. IPS World News stated it was about 60%. According to The State (South Carolina), Ethnic Kurds, who are not Arabs and live mainly in Iraq's north, make up more than 20 percent of Iraq's population. Shiite Muslims are around 65 percent, while Arab Sunnis (who have traditionally held power) make up 10-15 percent of the whole. That was slightly different from what I heard on the mainstream news, but not by much. I guess it depends on who you ask. Maybe I am confused about the Shiites. I was under the impression the Shiites were Persians, rather than Arabs.
"Now, let’s imagine the future. What if he [Saddam] fails to comply and we fail to act or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction. And someday, some way, I guarantee you, he will use the arsenal."
Now a quote from Madeleine Halfbright February 19, 1998: "I can honestly tell you that I don’t think that the world has seen, except maybe since Hitler, someone who is quite as evil as Saddam Hussein. ...If you don’t stop a horrific dictator before he gets started too far - that he can do untold damage. ...If the world had been firmer with Hitler earlier, then chances are that we might not have needed to send Americans to Europe during the Second World War. So, my lesson out of all of this is deal with the problem at the time that you can and don’t step away from it thinking that it’ll go away."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/839756/posts
I had seen the Clinton quote, but not the one from Halfbright. Thanks.
Well this may make things even more confusing.
Shiahs and Sunis are major divisions of the Moslem (Muslim) faithful. The descriptors Shiah and Suni are religious rather than ethnic.
Racially most are caucasoid. The major ethnic divisions are Arabic, Mesopotamian, Assyrian, Persian and Kurdish. The largest minor ethnicity are the Turkomans who are believed to have migrated south from central Asia, through Turkey into the region and mantained the acquired Turkish language.
But I don't want to have to explain to my grandchildren why we took a powder....The pacifists are always going to their powders.
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