Countdown–
48 Hours
By Jim Garamone,
AFPS (Updated)
|
Monday
night March 17, 2003, U.S. President Bush gave Iraqi dictator
48 hours to get out of Baghdad. The US message was delivered
to Iraq via the COMANDO SOLO Broadcast Aircraft:
The system is an information operations aircraft for peacekeeping
and peacemaking operations and humanitarian efforts which
comprise a large percentage of today’s military missions.
Commando Solo conducts civil affairs broadcast missions
in AM, FM, HF, TV. |
WASHINGTON–Monday
8pm, EST U.S. President Bush delivered an ultimatum to Saddam
Hussein and sons to leave Iraq within 48 hours during an address
to the American people. The message to Saddam was broadcast directly
to Iraq via U.S. military communications aircraft capable of interrupting
and broadcasting television and radio transmissions.
In his address
from the White House, the president explained that all roads
of diplomacy to end Saddam’s reign of terror have been exhausted
and Saddam’s "refusal" to leave Iraq"will result
in military conflict commenced at a time of our choosing."
"It is
too late for Saddam Hussein to remain in power," Bush said.
"It is not too late for the Iraqi military to act with honor
and protect your country by permitting the peaceful entry of coalition
forces to eliminate weapons of mass destruction," said President
Bush.
Bush’s speech
was broadcast via Commando Solo aircraft to the Iraqi people.
He spoke directly to the Iraqi military, saying coalition forces
will give Iraqi military units clear instructions on actions they
can take to avoid being attacked and destroyed.
"I urge
every member of the Iraqi military and intelligence services,
if war comes, do not fight for a dying regime that is not worth
your own life."
Bush told
the Iraqis their day of liberation is approaching: "The tyrant
will soon be gone." He said the coalition will ensure food
and medical aid will continue.
He traced
the history of the confrontation with Iraq. He said Saddam Hussein
agreed to disarm his weapons of mass destruction at the end of
the Gulf War in 1991. For 12 years, the United Nations has sent
inspectors into Iraq to verify the disarmament. The inspectors
met a brick wall. Bush said no country doubts that Iraq maintains
a weapons of mass destruction stockpile.
But Iraq’s
aid to terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda, is the real
danger, the president said.
"The
danger is clear: Using chemical, biological, or one day nuclear
weapons, obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could
fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds
of thousands of innocent people in our country or any other,"
Bush said.
"The United States and other nations did nothing to deserve
or invite this threat, but we will do everything to defeat it,"
he continued. "Instead of drifting along toward tragedy,
we will set a course toward safety."
Before the
danger appears in America’s skies, the United States will confront
it, the president said. "The United States of America has
the sovereign authority to use force in assuring its own national
security," he said. "That duty falls to me as commander
in chief by the oath I have sworn, by the oath I will keep."
U.N. Security
Council resolutions 678 and 687, passed in 1991, give the United
States the authority to act, Bush said. In addition, U.N. Security
Council resolution 1441 promised "serious consequences"
if Iraq did not fully and immediately disarm.
"Today no nation can possibly claim that Iraq has disarmed,"
Bush said. "And it will not disarm as long as Saddam Hussein
holds power."
Since the
passage of Resolution 1441 in November 2002, the United States
and its allies have worked within the Security Council to enforce
that council’s long-standing demands.
"Yet
some permanent members of the Security Council have publicly announced
they will veto any resolution that compels the disarmament of
Iraq," Bush said. "These governments share our assessment
of the danger, but not our resolve to meet it.
"Many nations, however, do have the resolve and fortitude
to act against this threat to peace. And a broad coalition is
now gathering to enforce the just demands of the world. The United
Nations Security Council has not lived up to its responsibilities.
So we will rise to ours."
Should Saddam
Hussein choose not to leave Iraq, the U.S. military will use every
measure needed to win a war. "Americans understand the costs
of conflict because we have paid them in the past," the president
said. "War has no certainty except the certainty of sacrifice."
The president
said in his attempt to remain in power, Hussein and terrorist
groups may attempt to conduct terrorist operations against the
American people and allies.
"These
attacks are not inevitable," he said. "They are, however,
possible." But, he added, the terrorist threat to America
and the world will be diminished the moment Saddam Hussein is
disarmed.
Shortly after
the president’s address, the Department of Homeland Security raised
the threat level to "Orange." Officials there noted
that American authorities have expelled people with ties to Iraqi
intelligence.
The president
has also directed additional security at airports and increased
Coast Guard patrols of major seaports.
"In the
20th century, some chose to appease murderous dictators whose
threats were allowed to grow into genocide and global war,"
the president said. "In this century, when evil men plot
chemical, biological and nuclear terror, a policy of appeasement
could bring destruction of a kind never before seen on this earth.
"Terrorists
and terror states do not reveal these threats with fair notice
in formal declarations. And responding to such enemies only after
they have struck first is not self- defense, it is suicide. The
security of the world requires disarming Saddam Hussein now."