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WASHINGTON, Aug 10: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday openly called for the “liberation” of Iraq, saying a long-standing US strategy of using sanctions and no-fly zones to contain Baghdad was not working.
“Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if Iraq were similar to Afghanistan?” Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing.
“If a bad regime was thrown out, people were liberated, food could come in, borders could be opened, repression could stop, prisons could be opened. I mean it would be fabulous.”
Rumsfeld said the economic and political sanctions imposed on Iraq have not worked, but instead have tended to erode over time, while US and British air forces enforcing no-fly zones in the northern and southern regions of the country have had little impact on Baghdad’s air defences.
“The big thing that was there was the weapon of mass destruction issue. And he had agreed, and the UN had agreed that they would — he would not have a WMD programme. We know he does have one. And he is continuing it,” he said.
“So there is no way any reasonable person could look at that record and say that it’s worked. It hasn’t worked. And it’s not working.”
Rumsfeld’s comments marked the most direct US repudiation yet of the containment strategy that every government in Washington since the 1991 US invasion has pursued to keep Saddam in check. Afghanistan was a “model” of what could happen if a country were “liberated”, Rumsfeld said. “It is a breathtaking accomplishment.” “Now, of course one worries about what will follow” in Iraq if the current regime was gone, Rumsfeld said.
“We worried about it in Afghanistan and we still are. We are still anxious to see that government put in place by the Afghan people find its sea legs and start getting some support from the rest of the world,” he said.
That will take time and effort to accomplish and in the meantime “it’s kind of untidy”, Rumsfeld said.
“Well, my goodness, democracy is untidy. Freedom is untidy. Liberation is untidy,” he said.
“It’s a very good thing that’s happened in Afghanistan. And all of this Henny-Penny ‘the sky is falling, and isn’t it terrible?’ is nonsense,” Rumsfeld said.
A senior White House official said Bush has not set a timetable for overthrowing Saddam and may not do so this year.
“He has not set a timetable and, as he said, if he had he would not tell you anyway,” the official said.
Bush has set as a US goal an end to Saddam’s government, but has said he would consult the Congress and the nation’s allies before acting.
IRAQ UNMOVED: Iraq stuck to hardline invective against the “delinquent clique” in Washington on Saturday.
If the United States goes ahead with threats to attack, “not only will Iraq be harmed but the Americans themselves will suffer as well as regional stability,” the influential Babel newspaper vowed.
“That will also undermine the efforts of the evil American administration to keep together its coalition with European countries under the false pretext of fighting terrorism,” said the daily, run by President Saddam Hussein’s elder son, Uday.
“The president (George W. Bush) of the aggressive American administration is entangled in his own statements and the delinquent clique is hallucinating to such a degree that even their allies have begun to voice displeasure at the comments of Bush and his gang.”
Babel went on to say that the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq, as demanded by the world body, “remains dependent on serious measures by the UN Security Council, namely the lifting of the embargo and respect for the security and sovereignty of Iraq.”
“We remain committed to a balanced dialogue (with the UN), but at the same time we are prepared to defend out country if war is imposed on us.”
EUROPEAN ALLIES: The risk to international stability has upset several European allies of the United States.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Friday sharply ruled out joining any military attack on Iraq, signalling a major split between the United States and one of the key allies in the US-led war on terror.
“I think that if there is a military intervention, we should be cautious. That means that Germany will not take part,” Schroeder said.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan agreed on the need to find a political solution to the problem of Iraq, according to a foreign ministry statement.
The new French government has expressed reservations, while Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair is under increasing domestic pressure not to back a US strike.—AFP
