[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

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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

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