A rchive Date
[ 15-02-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Canoe/canoecnews.html
U.S. ready to act alone against Iraq
Friday, Feb. 15, 2002
WASHINGTON (CP) - When it comes to dealing with Iraq, the contrast between Washington and Ottawa is clear: the United States would go it alone against President Saddam Hussein if necessary, while Canada prefers to work within international rules.
But if Iraq threatens to use weapons of mass destruction then the gloves should come off and Canadians would back the Americans, says Canada's new Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who met Graham in Washington on Thursday, said President George W. Bush had made no decision to attack Iraq but the U.S. administration would take unilateral action if needed to bring down Saddam's government.
"We'll be in close consultation with our friends as we go along," Powell said.
"But of course we have to preserve all options and we have to preserve the option to act alone if, as the president has said previously, we find that necessary."
Bush has called Iraq, Iran and North Korea an "axis of evil" and said his administration would not stand by idly as the threat from them grows.
Powell acknowledged the UN Security Council has a role to play in sanctioning Iraq.
But as far as the United States is concerned, Powell said Saddam's regime "ought to change to benefit the people of Iraq, and to bring greater stability and peace and opportunity to the region."
The secretary of state then excused himself, shook Graham's hand and left.
The first question Graham faced was why was Canada reluctant to oust Saddam - a reference to Prime Minister Jean Chretien's remarks in Moscow that Canada is not interested in joining the United States in expanding the war against terrorism beyond Afghanistan.
"Nobody is supporting Saddam Hussein," Graham replied.
"But everybody recognizes that in international politics you have to have a process ... before you invade a sovereign country there has to be a reason for it or we're going to lead to international chaos."
According to Graham, Chretien has said Canadians would support action against Iraq "if the causes are there."
"The two causes that are being cited are a link to the terrorism which occurred on Sept. 11 - that has not been shown."
"But if it is shown that they are amassing their weapons of mass destruction with the vision of using them against someone in the immediate future, that's a clear and present danger that we and all the world have to address. And we'll be willing to address it."
Graham noted, however, that Powell clearly said Bush is handling the issue with caution and still deciding what to do.
"And obviously we believe that what we are doing through the UN, the use of sanctions, is the way that we should presently proceed in order to make Saddam Hussein unable to use his weapons of mass destruction."
Graham doesn't buy the talk of ousting Saddam.
"There's all sorts of people around this world that one might want gone," he said. "You don't just point around and say 'Hey I'd like all those folks gone. Now, I'm going to take them out.'
"I don't think that's the way the world operates and I don't think that's the way the United States intends to operate, and certainly not the way Canada operates."
"We recognize that a rules-based system in our international system is the way it works and we intend to work within the rules."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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