MILLIYET- Columnist Sami Kohen writes on US President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday night. A summary of his column is as follows:
US President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday painted his government as an administration resolved to bring about an end to the Iraq problem. In other words, the clock is ticking down to war in Iraq!
Although in his speech Bush neither declared a war against Iraq nor issued another ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, the powerful address demonstrated once again his determination to attack Iraq.
There were three main points in the speech: 1) ‘Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option,’ said Bush. The Bush administration doesn’t trust Saddam one bit. The US president made it clear he gives no credence to Iraqi claims of compliance with the UN resolutions. ‘The dictator of Iraq is not disarming, on the contrary, he is deceiving,’ he charged. Bush stressed that time was running out and the US was prepared to act alone if necessary. 2) Bush called on the UN Security Council to convene on Feb. 5 at which time Secretary of State Colin Powell is to present to them evidence about Iraq's weapons programs and links to terrorist groups. The Bush administration claims that intelligence sources and statements from suspects in US custody prove that Saddam is harboring terrorists, including militants from al- Qaeda. It seems that Washington has at last decided to show the world the evidence which it has so far withheld out of fear of jeopardizing its intelligence sources. 3) The thrust of the speech was that Bush would not wait much longer after presenting evidence to the UN Security Council, and that his country is prepared to act to disarm Iraq with or without UN backing. Therefore, he stressed, the time given for weapons inspections would not be unlimited. Along with other countries striving to arrive at a peaceful solution to the problem, Turkey should also take into consideration these main points. Our government should prepare its plans in light of these facts.
News: SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION