 |
|
The
only thing the U.S. lacks in its plans for an Iraq attack is an
excuse
|
With
additional reporting by Angy Ghannam, IOL Staff
WASHINGTON,
September 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. President
George W. Bush is expected Thursday, September 19 to send to Congress
a draft resolution of support for his Iraq policy, as experts say that
Baghdad’s cooperation with weapons inspectors will not stop the
attack.
Saying
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was “not going to fool anybody”
with his offer to re-admit U.N. weapons inspectors, Bush stepped up
the pressure on both Baghdad and the world body. Bush announced that
top lawmakers had pledged to vote on an Iraq resolution before the
November 5 mid-term elections, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“It’s
an important signal to the world to see that this country is united in
our resolve to deal with threats that we face,” Bush said as he met
with Republican and Democrat leaders of the Senate and House of
Representatives.
Bush,
who warned the United Nations last week to expect unilateral U.S.
action if it fails to take strong action to disarm Baghdad, expects to
send the U.S. Congress a draft resolution Thursday giving him latitude
to deal with Iraq, an administration official said.
It
was not immediately clear whether the measure would include explicit
authorization of military action against a regime Washington claims is
harboring terrorists and developing weapons of mass destruction.
“We’re
going to be working closely with the Congress” on particulars, the
official, who declined to be named, told AFP.
Bush’s
comments seemed to be aimed as much at the United Nations, where
Saddam’s offer to allow the return of arms inspectors for the first
time since they fled in 1998 has caused turmoil, as towards Iraq.
The
U.S. wants the U.N. to impose on Iraq new unclear conditions, most of
them hard to fulfill, regarding the work of the inspectors, so the
U.S. administration can use them as the excuse it now lacks to launch
its war, said Dr. Hassan Abou Taleb, assistant president of Al-Ahram
Center For Political & strategic Studies.
Russia
responded to Saddam’s suggestion by saying there was now no need for
any new U.N. resolution. France, also a veto-wielding permanent U.N.
Security Council member, has publicly appeared to hesitate.
White
House officials said Bush still wants firm U.N. Security Council
action to strip Baghdad of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons,
but emphasized anew that he had not ruled out unilateral U.S. action.
“We
must and will take whatever steps are necessary to defend our freedom
and security,” Vice President Dick Cheney said at a political
fundraiser in Connecticut.
“Many
countries may think it is difficult the U.S. will be able to get the
Security Council resolution it needs to attack Iraq,” he said.
“But
they are wrong. The only thing the U.S. needs to do is to pressure
Russia, France and China hard enough and the resolution will pass,
especially if these countries got something in return,” said Ahmed
Ibrahim, an expert in Al-Ahram Center.
The
flexibility recently shown by the U.S. is only to buy time during
which military preparations are conducted, “This preparations
included moving the U.S. central command in the region to Qatar,” he
added.
The
U.S. administration’s current attitude does not mean they are trying
to end this crisis, instead, they want to involve the international
community in to the war on Iraq, Abou Taleb said.
“Inspectors
back or not, Bush is going to war because the declared reasons are not
the not the real motives of the Americans,” said a political expert
on condition of anonymity.
Attacking
Iraq will serve the U.S. strategic goals in the region in many ways.
The first is to rearrange the political situations in the Middle East,
he said, adding that attacking Iraq will impose a U.S. control on the
region’s oil and its sources.
“Last
but by no means not least, removing the Saddam’s regime and imposing
a puppet regime allied to the U.S. will make it consequently allied to
Israel, which will remove Iraq from the Arab-Israeli conflict once and
for all,” he added.
“Saddam
Hussein stupidity in dealing with international variables gave the
U.S. the chance it was waiting for to change the first Arabic regime
in the area,” he said.
