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Bush sees progress in building consensus

Saying the US must confront Saddam Hussein before the Iraqi president builds a nuclear bomb, US President George W. Bush yesterday made his most direct appeal yet for public support for disarming Baghdad with force if necessary.

In his weekly radio address, Bush challenged the US Congress and the UN to take a forceful stand against Iraq, saying the "lives of millions and the peace of the world" may be at stake.

Bush said his call was gaining ground one day after Iraq flatly rejected US demands for a swift and unconditional return of UN arms inspectors. The UN inspectors, responsible for accounting for Iraq's nuclear, chemical, biological and ballistic weapon programs, were pulled out of Iraq in 1998.

Bush counted Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who he was to meet with yesterday, and the leaders of Britain, Spain and Poland among those who "have reached the same conclusion I have -- that Saddam Hussein has made the case against himself."

"We must stand up for our security and for the demands of human dignity. By heritage and choice, the United States will make that stand. The world community must do so as well," Bush said.

For his address, Bush borrowed heavily from Thursday's speech to the UN General Assembly in which he bluntly warned that "action will be unavoidable" against Iraq unless the world body took a hard line forcing Baghdad to disarm.

Bush accused Saddam of maintaining stockpiles of chemical and biological agents that could be used as weapons against its neighbors, US allies and US forces in the Gulf region.

Bush accused Saddam of trying to develop nuclear weapons, saying he already had the infrastructure and has illicitly sought to purchase equipment needed to enrich uranium for a bomb. Should he acquire fissile material, Bush said Saddam would be able to build a nuclear weapon within a year.

"By supporting terrorist groups, repressing its own people and pursuing weapons of mass destruction in defiance of a decade of UN resolutions, Saddam Hussein's regime has proven itself a grave and gathering danger. To suggest otherwise is to hope against the evidence. To assume this regime's good faith is to bet the lives of millions and the peace of the world in a reckless gamble," Bush said.

Bush warned Congress against backing down, saying it "must make it unmistakably clear that when it comes to confronting the growing danger posed by Iraq's efforts to develop or acquire weapons of mass destruction, the status quo is totally unacceptable."

Despite Bush's call for quick action, some Senate Democrats want to delay a vote on the use of force against Iraq until after the Nov. 5 congressional elections.

They say the Bush administration has yet to explain how a conflict in Iraq would affect the war on terrorism, who would replace Saddam if he were ousted, and whether the international community would back US action.

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