September 12, 2002
Senator Edwards Calls for Overthrow of Iraqi Dictator
Filed under: Intelligence Committee, Iraq War, Iraq War Intelligence, Iraq War Resolution — is @ 6:17
pm
WASHINGTON–Senator John Edwards on Thursday called for the ouster of Saddam Hussein. A member of
the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Edwards said Iraq has defied the United Nations
and represents a grave threat to the United States and its allies.”The time has come for decisive
action. With our allies, we must do whatever is necessary to guard against the threat posed by an Iraq
armed with weapons of mass destruction and under the thumb of Saddam Hussein,” Senator Edwards said.
“The United States must lead an international effort to remove the regime of Saddam Hussein and to
assure that Iraq fulfills its obligations to the international community,” he added.
“If, however, the United Nations Security Council is prevented from supporting this effort, then
we must act with as many allies as possible to ensure that Iraq meets its obligations to existing
Security Council resolutions.”
The first anniversary of terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, he said, is a reminder that
Iraq’s arsenal of weapons of mass destruction would wreak havoc if Saddam Hussein let them fall into
the hands of terrorists. “The terrorist threat against America is all too clear. Thousands of
terrorist operatives around the world would pay anything to get their hands on Saddam’s arsenal, and
there is every reason to believe that Saddam would turn his weapons over to these terrorists. No one
can doubt that if the terrorists of September 11 had had weapons of mass destruction, they would have
used them. On September 12, 2002, we can hardly ignore the terrorist threat and the serious danger
that Saddam would allow his arsenal to be used in aid of terror.”
Senator Edwards said the case for removing Saddam Hussein needs to be made openly to the American
people, to the Congress, which has an obligation to be part of the process, and to the United Nations
and our allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “The Bush administration must make a full-
court press to rally global support, much like the impressive effort President Bush’s father made to
rally the first international coalition against Saddam in the fall of 1990. If they do, I believe they
will succeed,” he said.
An American-led alliance against Saddam Hussein also must be prepared to provide security in Iraq
after he is deposed. “We must be prepared to deal with the consequences of success,” he said. The Bush
administration “must not make the same mistakes in post-Saddam Iraq that they are making in post-
Taliban Afghanistan, where they have been dangerously slow in making the real commitment necessary to
help democracy take root,” he said.
Edwards.Senate.Gov 9/12/02
http://web.archive.org/web/20030219152335/edwards.senate.gov/press/2002/0912a-pr.htmlComments Off
Edwards Op-Ed on State Department Website
Filed under: Iraq War, Iraq War Resolution — is @ 5:04 pm
In September 2002, in the face of growing public skepticism of the Bush administration’s calls for
an invasion of Iraq, Edwards rushed to their defense in an op-ed article published in the Washington
Post. In his commentary, Edwards claimed that Iraq, which had been successfully disarmed several years
earlier, was actually “a grave and growing threat,” and Congress should therefore “endorse the use of
all necessary means to eliminate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.”
Claiming that U.S. national security “requires” that Congress grant President Bush unprecedented war
powers, he further insisted, “We must not tie our own hands by requiring Security Council action …”
The Bush administration was so impressed with Edwards’ arguments that they posted the article on
the State Department website.
Antiwar.com 1/21/04
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/zunes.php?articleid=3074
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
