Going It Together
HAYES, STEPHEN F.
Going It Together The Bush administration assembles an ever-larger coalition for war. BY STEPHEN F. HAYES NOT SURPRISINGLY, top Bush administration officials have no confidence that Saddam Hussein...
...Goff said the American diplomat came "seeking possible contributions . . . if force is used against Iraq...
...No similar scruples kept them from promising Saddam Hussein they would recommend lifting U.N...
...And just as U.S...
...And it hasn't changed...
...resolution...
...Such aid, of course, will allow the U.S...
...For the sake of peace, he must disarm...
...In short, disarming Saddam means removing him...
...resolution specifically authorizing force...
...crowd, his administration is moving ahead quickly, not only militarily, but diplomatically, too...
...officials will make in asking for cooperation: The war in Iraq is part of the larger war on terror...
...I hope Saddam Hussein does what he said he would do, and that is disarm...
...Senior administration officials insist that the recent softening of Bush's public rhetoric does not reflect a change in priorities—from regime change to disarmament—on Iraq...
...Allies who do not wish to contribute troops or equipment to the war in Iraq will likely be asked to step up their participation in other aspects of the wider war on terror...
...resolution 1441...
...that left unclear whether Baghdad had accepted the terms of U.N...
...The president's aides are feverishly assembling what Bush calls a "coalition of the willing"—allies who will support the United States even without a second U.N...
...approval, Prime Minister Helen Clark said earlier in the week that New Zealand would send a naval warship and "patrol aircraft" to the region in support of the ongoing anti-terror campaign...
...This despite Kofi Annan's declaration last week that "regime change is not on the table...
...Any foolish optimism in that regard was dispelled when Iraq continued its longstanding practice of firing on allied aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones and when it submitted a hostile, almost psychotic nine-page letter to the U.N...
...In New Zealand on Friday, for example, U.S...
...resolution requiring him to disarm...
...And the Washington Post reported last week that 50 U.S...
...Asked about the comment, a senior administration official dismissed it with a wave of the hand and a single word: "Whatever...
...embassies sent letters to "sound out foreign leaders about their willingness to participate in military action in the event President Saddam Hussein fails to comply" with inspections...
...So even as the president plays rhetorically to the U.N...
...But Bush knows Saddam will not unilaterally disarm—he could have avoided 11 years of sanctions had he done so after the Gulf War—and the president understands that U.N...
...allies were free to characterize the terms of their participation in the early stages of that broader campaign, they will be able to do the same with Iraq...
...Officials say most of those countries will participate, one way or another, in the coming war in Iraq...
...It still hasn't changed, despite the infrequent use of the locution "regime change" by administration officials since passage of the U.N...
...BY STEPHEN F. HAYES NOT SURPRISINGLY, top Bush administration officials have no confidence that Saddam Hussein will cooperate with the latest U.N...
...There have been no changes in policy," a White House spokesman confirmed late last week...
...And while Goff reiterated New Zealand's opposition to military intervention in Iraq without explicit U.N...
...Evidence of this effort is everywhere...
...Already, Blix and his colleagues have rejected President Bush's "zero tolerance" of Iraqi noncompliance, saying it's not their place to make such judgments...
...I mean, my first choice is not to commit our troops to regime change...
...chargé d'affaires Phil Wall met with New Zealand foreign minister Phil Goff...
...The president himself sought support from allies at last week's NATO summit and huddled with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday...
...Allies who have already offered varying degrees of support include Australia, Bahrain, Britain, Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, Kuwait, Qatar, Spain, and Turkey...
...So it should likewise come as no surprise that the Bush administration is steaming ahead with preparaStephen F. Hayes is a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...The White House counts 90 nations as active participants in the war on terror...
...Period...
...One important argument U.S...
...In fact, says one, "regime change" is so integral to Bush's thinking, he uses the phrase against advice to avoid it...
...Several top administration officials will be seeking concrete commitments of support from would-be allies over the next few weeks...
...Meanwhile, Donald Rumsfeld raised the issue in recent bilateral meetings with defense officials in Latin America...
...It's going to be a fairly big coalition," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said on Sean Hanni-ty's radio show on Friday, "and it's going to grow over time...
...Such a second resolution is "not being widely discussed" and is unlikely, says one administration official with knowledge of war planning...
...sanctions if they found no weapons of mass destruction in a year...
...tions—both military and diplomatic —for regime change in Iraq...
...Last week, in an interview with Czech television, Bush said, "I hope we don't have to go to war with Iraq...
...It's the stated policy of this government to have regime change," President Bush declared at a July 8 press conference, after repeated questions about his commitment to removing Saddam...
...military to shift resources to Iraq...
...Also unsurprisingly, the same officials have little confidence that the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi Annan, and chief arms inspector Hans Blix will achieve anything in the round of inspections set to begin this week...
...Kofi Annan, of course, is the author of numerous failed "deals" with the Iraqi dictator, whom he once described as "a man I can do business with...
...What will become increasingly clear in the coming weeks is the hol-lowness of claims that the United States will be "going it alone" when it intervenes militarily to unseat Saddam Hussein...
...Other nations have pledged help, but won't say so publicly until the United States has begun the military campaign...
...inspectors will never truly disarm Saddam without his cooperation...
Vol. 8 • December 2002 • No. 12
