Bush administration: it's regime change AND disarmament or war

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

New York Times  Saturday, March 1
U.S. Says Hussein Must Cede Power to Head Off War (excerpt)
Photo caption: Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division headed out to the
Persian Gulf region Friday from Fort Campbell, Ky., aboard commercial
airliners.

By FELICITY BARRINGER with DAVID E. SANGER
UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 28 - The White House said today that the only way to
prevent war in Iraq would be to disarm the country and depose Saddam
Hussein.
At the same time, Russia's foreign minister threatened to veto a United
Nations Security Council resolution that says Iraq has missed its last
chance of avoiding war.

The hardening of positions on both sides increases the pressure on the six
uncommitted members of the Security Council, who have looked to the work of
Hans Blix, one of the chief United Nations weapons inspectors, for guidance
on Iraqi compliance. Mr. Blix's latest report, formally delivered to Council
members today, gives ammunition to both sides and does not offer the kind of
unambiguous judgment that could help resolve the doubts of those who are
wavering. [Excerpts, Page A8.]

France and Russia seized on Iraq's decision "in principle" to begin
destroying its 120 or so short-range Al Samoud 2 missiles as further
evidence that the inspections process was working. Ari Fleischer, the White
House spokesman, said today that President Bush was hopeful that war could
be averted, but that to escape military action, Iraq must disarm and Mr.
Hussein must be deposed.

That combination of events, he said, looked highly unlikely.

Pressed on the point, Mr. Fleischer said both would be necessary conditions
because disarmament was the United Nations' goal and changing Iraq's
government was the president's.

The statement puts the United States on a different track from the United
Nations, whose resolutions have been concerned with the immediate and
unconditional disarmament, not with a change of government in Baghdad.

Mr. Fleischer told reporters today that Iraq must "completely and totally"
disarm or its leaders must "go into exile."

Later, asked whether Mr. Bush's standard for war goes beyond that of the
United Nations, Mr. Fleischer said, "It's disarmament and regime change."

He noted that Mr. Bush had predicted a token move by Mr. Hussein to
alleviate pressure and to try to divide the Security Council. He said, "the
Iraqi actions are propaganda, wrapped in a lie, inside a falsehood," a play
on Churchill's famous 1939 remark about Russia. The Canadian prime minister,
Jean Chrétien, in Mexico City where he is consulting on the Iraq issue, said
today with visible agitation: "If you start changing regimes, where do you
stop, this is the problem? Who is next? Give me the list, the priorities."



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