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Mix-Ansicht- Zur Irak-Politik... Schröder: Bush 1: 0 ;-) - stocksorcerer, 22.08.2002, 10:20
- Und die NY-Times heute - stocksorcerer, 22.08.2002, 10:33
Und die NY-Times heute
-->August 22, 2002
Bush Promises Patience on Iraq
By ADAM NAGOURNEY with THOM SHANKER
RAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 21 — President Bush said today that he was open to nonmilitary ways of replacing Saddam Hussein as the leader of Iraq, and he said he was a"patient man" who would take his time before determining how to proceed against Baghdad. Mr. Bush spoke after a meeting at his ranch with national security advisers at which, he said, the issue of Iraq had not come up.
"Regime change is in the interests of the world," Mr. Bush said, standing on a dusty road with a hot wind blowing in his face and his secretary of defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, at his side."How we achieve that is a matter of consultation," he said.
He added:"When I say I'm a patient man, I mean I'm a patient man and that we will look at all options and we will consider all technologies available to us, and diplomacy and intelligence. But one thing is for certain, is that this administration agrees that Saddam Hussein is a threat."
Mr. Bush repeatedly questioned the heightened interest focused on his meeting today. When a reporter asked Mr. Bush if he was concerned that the United States might have to go it alone in a war against Mr. Hussein, the president responded:"Are you asking about Iraq? The subject didn't come up in this meeting."
He added:"I know there's this kind of intense speculation that seems to be going on, a kind of a — I don't know how you would describe it. It's kind of a churning."
At that point, Mr. Rumsfeld leaned into the microphone."Frenzy," he said, as the president nodded approvingly.
Among those who flew in for the two-hour midvacation meeting, followed by lunch, were Vice President Dick Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, and Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The meeting came in the midst of a summer in which senior members of Mr. Bush's administration have been increasingly making a case for ousting Mr. Hussein, and suggesting such a move was likely.
Some domestic leaders, including a few from the president's own party, and a range of foreign allies have raised cautions.
Although the president and Mr. Rumsfeld said after the Crawford session that war planning for Iraq was not a subject of their meeting, Mr. Rumsfeld later told a large and enthusiastic gathering of Army troops at nearby Fort Hood, Tex., that the issue was clearly on the mind of the nation's commander in chief.
Asked by a private from Mr. Rumsfeld's hometown, Chicago, whether America's ties with Russia would be affected by an offensive against Baghdad, Mr. Rumsfeld said,"The president has made no such decision that we should go into a war with Iraq."
With a chuckle, Mr. Rumsfeld then added,"He's thinking about it," which brought laughter and murmuring from the soldiers.
In Houston today, a senior Congressional Republican, Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority whip, described Mr. Hussein as a growing threat to United States security, and declared that the United States must attack him,"the sooner, the better."
Last Friday, Mr. Bush said that he would listen carefully to Republicans who oppose United States intervention in Iraq, and said he would make up his mind based"upon the latest intelligence and how best to protect our country."
White House aides expressed concern today about both the growing speculation over what Mr. Bush might do about Iraq and when and the suggestions of divisions in the Republican Party over Mr. Bush's plans for Baghdad. His remarks today seemed intended to emphasize that any action would come after careful deliberation. Instead, Mr. Bush and his advisers said the meeting was spent discussing a broad range of Pentagon business, from the future of missile defense to an analysis of budgets and weapons procurement to accelerating the process of contingency planning by the regional war-fighting commanders.
A similar session on budgets and strategy was held one year ago, also at Crawford.
Mr. Bush said much of the time today was spent talking about missile defense and about what he described as the"impressive" progress made since the American withdrawal from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty.
A Pentagon official said after the meeting that Mr. Bush was given"a routine update on the missile defense development program," and that no decisions were made.
Mr. Rumsfeld said the final form of an American antimissile system was"not knowable," but said the Pentagon would be testing a layered defense that targets enemy missiles as they are launched, in midflight and as they approach their targets.
Mr. Bush and his advisers also discussed Pentagon spending plan for the next five years, including which weapons systems would best meet emerging threats.
A number of new, big-ticket weapons programs financed in the current military spending bill may have to be curtailed or even killed; among those under scrutiny are the Army's Comanche helicopter, the Air Force's F-22 jet fighter and the Marine Corps's V-22 troop transport.
The meeting also included a discussion of how the individual armed services could plan procurement decisions and structure their forces to prepare for future battles in which they would all fight side by side.
The meeting began about 9 a.m. at the main house on Mr. Bush's ranch here. At 11:30, Mr. Bush, driving a Ford pickup extremely slowly along the straight and narrow roads of his flat ranch, pulled up to his outdoor news conference. His passengers included Mr. Rumsfeld, the White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, and a Secret Service agent. Mr. Cheney did not appear in public here today.
Before Mr. Bush arrived, a crew of workers drove a pickup truck filled with bales of hay and unloaded them by the house, covering up propane tanks and, by design or not, producing, along with the herds of cattle grazing in the grass, a more picturesque backdrop for the event. Mr. Bush was wearing cowboy boots, and teased Mr. Rumsfeld for wearing a conservative gray business suit.
What had been a relatively small press corps following Mr. Bush's"working vacation" here this month expanded markedly this morning, drawn by the prospect of a decisive meeting on military plans for Iraq.
During his 14-minute news conference, Mr. Bush also expressed skepticism over reports that Abu Nidal, a militant Palestinian who was responsible for a blaze of terrorism through 20 countries, had died by his own hand, as reported by Iraqi officials this week.
"I found it interesting that they said he committed suicide with four bullet heads — four bullet wounds to the head," Mr. Bush said."And so I'm not exactly sure how he died. We just have to wait and make sure in fact he did die."
Whatever Mr. Bush's ultimate intentions, the president made clear today that he was not in any particular hurry to act against Iraq.
Asked if he saw any need to make a case to the American public for toppling Mr. Hussein, he responded,"What I need to do is to continue to, as we call it, consult with people who share our interests to make the world a safer place, and I will do so."
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Man beachte die letzten beiden Absätze. ![[image]](img/smilies/smile.gif)
winkääää
stocksorcerer
<ul> ~ New York Times</ul>
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