    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
    [September 14, 2002]
    [Pages 1582-1584]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    September 14, 2002

        Good morning. Today I'm meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio
    Berlusconi about the growing danger posed
    by Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and the
    unique opportunity the U.N. Security Council has to confront it.
        I appreciate the Prime Minister's
    public support for effective international action to

    [[Page 1583]]

    deal with this danger. The Italian Prime Minister joins other concerned
    world leaders who have called on the world to act, among them Prime
    Minister Blair of Great Britain, Prime Minister
    Aznar of Spain, President
    Kwasniewski of Poland.
        These leaders have reached the same conclusion I have, that Saddam
    Hussein has made the case against himself.
    He has broken every pledge he made to the
    United Nations and the world since his invasion of Kuwait was rolled
    back in 1991. Sixteen times the United Nations Security Council has
    passed resolutions designed to ensure that Iraq does not pose a threat
    to international peace and security. Saddam Hussein has violated every
    one of these 16 resolutions, not once but many times.
        Saddam Hussein's regime continues to
    support terrorist groups and to oppress its civilian population. It
    refuses to account for missing Gulf war personnel or to end illicit
    trade outside the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. And although the regime
    agreed in 1991 to destroy and stop developing all weapons of mass
    destruction and long-range missiles, it has broken every aspect of this
    fundamental pledge.
        Today, this regime likely maintains stockpiles of chemical and
    biological agents and is improving and expanding facilities capable of
    producing chemical and biological weapons. Today, Saddam
    Hussein has the scientists and infrastructure
    for a nuclear weapons program and has illicitly sought to purchase the
    equipment needed to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon. Should his
    regime acquire fissile material, it would be able to build a nuclear
    weapon within a year.
        The former head of the U.N. team investigating Iraq's weapons of
    mass destruction program, Richard Butler,
    reached this conclusion after years of experience: ``The fundamental
    problem with Iraq remains the nature of the regime itself. Saddam
    Hussein is a homicidal dictator who is
    addicted to weapons of mass destruction.''
        By supporting terrorist groups, repressing its own people, and
    pursuing weapons of mass destruction in defiance of a decade of U.N.
    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.
    And this is a risk we must not take.
        Saddam Hussein's defiance has confronted
    the United Nations with a difficult and defining moment: Are Security
    Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without
    consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purposes of its founding,
    or will it be irrelevant?
        As the United Nations prepares an effective response to Iraq's
    defense, I also welcome next week's congressional hearings on the
    threats Saddam Hussein's brutal regime poses
    to our country and the entire world. Congress 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.
        The issue is straightforward: We must choose between a world of fear
    or a world of progress. 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.
        Thank you for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 1:05 p.m. on September 13 in the
    Cabinet Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on September
    14. The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press
    Secretary on September 13 but was embargoed for release until the
    broadcast. In his remarks, the President referred to President Saddam
    Hussein of Iraq; Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom;
    President Jose Maria Aznar of Spain; and President Aleksander

    [[Page 1584]]

    Kwasniewski of Poland. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a
    Spanish language transcript of this address.