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Lieberman, Others Renew Call for Ouster of Saddam Hussein
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Lieberman: Saddam Hussein is a ‘time bomb’ |
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) has called for the removal of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whom he described as a "time bomb."
"We know that he has the means or the motivation to do us harm," said Lieberman, who made his remarks on a Fox News television program Sunday, February 10. "We know that he has weapons, chemical and biological weapons. We have reason to believe he is developing nuclear weapons."
The Connecticut Democrat and former vice presidential candidate also called upon U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration to get tough with Iraq, Iran, North Korea -- the nations Bush singled out in his State of the Union address speech as an "axis of evil."
Bush's State of the Union speech, lumping Iran, Iraq and North Korea, together as an axis threatening international security, continues to resonate - through Congress and around the world - almost two weeks after its delivery.
Lieberman, like many in Congress and apparently Bush himself, does not think all three "axis" countries pose equal threats or deserve the same response. There are "different gradations" of what the United States should do, the senator said.
Bush will not discuss publicly his next steps against Iraq, but has ruled nothing out. Privately, White House officials say large-scale military action against Iraq is not imminent and has not been planned.
However, there is plenty coming out of Washington to keep everyone off balance.
At two congressional hearings last week, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Bush is exploring "the most serious set of options that one might imagine" against Iraq.
Lieberman specifically endorsed efforts to have Iraqi opposition groups pry Saddam from power - a course that has so far borne no fruit. But he also cited the U.S.’s military successes in Afghanistan as a lesson for those who believe U.S. forces would only get bogged down in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Sunday that Baghdad would defeat any U.S. military action against his country.
"America has revealed its hatred against the Arabs and Muslims and this arrogant [Bush] understands concession as weakness," Ramadan told reporters after opening an exhibition of Syrian products in Baghdad. "America has been saying that over the last 12 years and those who defend their sovereignty and country will defeat the aggressors such as the arrogant Americans."
The Bush administration is determined to force Saddam Hussein to let back in U.N. weapons inspectors who have been kept out since 1998, accusing him of seeking to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
The United Nations announced earlier this week that Iraq had offered talks with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which could lead to allowing the inspectors to return. Washington has received the Iraqi offer with skepticism.
"We are ready for useful and positive dialogue with the [U.N.] secretary-general and the world body," Ramadan said.
Emboldened by success in Afghanistan, other U.S. lawmakers are beating the drum for quick action to get rid of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, but take a different view of other nations singled out by Bush as trouble.
Democratic Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, agreed, saying on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Saddam was an "evil force." But he cautioned that the focus should remain on terrorism; otherwise the U.S. might lose coalition allies.
"He should be taken out at some point," Graham said. "My question is, is this the time to do it? Shouldn't we be focusing on completing the war on terrorism?"
Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also offered caution and gently questioned Bush's rhetoric.
"I think we are better off, as Teddy Roosevelt once said, to speak softly and carry a big stick," he said on ABC's "This Week." "We carry a big stick, there's no question about that."
But Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, saw confrontation with Iraq as all but inevitable.
"These are strong signals of things to come, if these people don't shape up," he said. "I think, ultimately, we'll be confronted with these people, probably in some kind of war."
U.S. allies are nervous about U.S. intentions concerning Iraq, hoping Washington will not act unilaterally or in the near future.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, in an interview appearing Monday, February 11, in a German newspaper, placed stock in assurances he said Bush gave him personally.
"Bush told me that he harbors no attack plans," he told Handelsblatt. "I am relying on that."
Meanwhile, an Iranian official, bristled at Bush's threatening language, but pledged cooperation in keeping members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organization out of his country.
"What we have experienced in the past couple of weeks has been a great deal of U.S. rhetoric, outright animosity and hostility, that has been put by various U.S. officials against my country," Javad Zarif, Iran's deputy foreign minister for international affairs, said on "Fox News Sunday."
But he said Al-Qaeda were the "enemies'' of Iran and if any are found in his country, "we will return them to their own countries or to the government of Afghanistan."
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