[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 12 (Monday, March 24, 2003)]
[Pages 329-330]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

March 15, 2003

    Good morning. This weekend marks a bitter anniversary for the people 
of Iraq. Fifteen years ago, Saddam Hussein's regime ordered a chemical 
weapons attack on a village in Iraq called Halabja. With that single 
order, the regime killed thousands of Iraq's Kurdish citizens. Whole 
families died while trying to flee clouds of nerve and mustard agents 
descending from the sky. Many who managed to survive still suffer from 
cancer, blindness, respiratory diseases, miscarriages, and severe birth 
defects among their children.
    The chemical attack on Halabja, just one of 40 targeted at Iraq's 
own people, provided a glimpse of the crimes Saddam Hussein is willing 
to commit and the kind of threat he now presents to the entire world. He 
is among history's cruelest dictators, and he is arming himself with the 
world's most terrible weapons.
    Recognizing this threat, the United Nations Security Council 
demanded that Saddam Hussein give up all his weapons of mass destruction 
as a condition for ending the Gulf war 12 years ago. The Security 
Council has repeated this demand numerous times and warned that Iraq 
faces serious consequences if it fails to comply. Iraq has responded 
with defiance, delay, and deception.
    The United States, Great Britain, and Spain continue to work with 
fellow members of the U.N. Security Council to confront this common 
danger. We have seen far too many instances in the past decade, from 
Bosnia to Rwanda to Kosovo, where the failure of the Security Council to 
act decisively has led to tragedy. And we must recognize that some 
threats are so grave and their potential consequences so terrible that 
they must be removed, even if it requires military force.
    As diplomatic efforts continue, we must never lose sight of the 
basic facts about the regime of Baghdad. We know from recent history 
that Saddam Hussein is a reckless dictator who has twice invaded his 
neighbors without provocation, wars that led to death and suffering on a 
massive scale. We know from human rights groups that dissidents in Iraq 
are tortured, imprisoned, and sometimes just disappear; their hands, 
feet, and tongues are cut off; their eyes are gouged out; and female 
relatives are raped in their presence.
    As the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said this 
week, ``We have a moral obligation to intervene where evil is in 
control. Today, that place is Iraq.''
    We know from prior weapons inspections that Saddam has failed to 
account for vast quantities of biological and chemical agents, including 
mustard agent, botulinum toxin, and sarin, capable of killing millions 
of people. We know the Iraqi regime finances and sponsors terror. And we 
know the regime has plans to place innocent people around military 
installations to act as human shields.
    There is little reason to hope that Saddam Hussein will disarm. If 
force is required to disarm him, the American people can know that our 
Armed Forces have been given every tool and every resource to achieve 
victory. The people of Iraq can know that every effort will be made to 
spare innocent life and to help Iraq recover from three decades of 
totalitarian rule. And plans are in place to provide Iraqis with massive 
amounts of food, as well as medicine and other essential supplies, in 
the event of hostilities.
    Crucial days lie ahead for the free nations of the world. 
Governments are now showing whether their stated commitments to liberty 
and security are words alone or convictions they're prepared to act 
upon. And for the Government of the United States and the coalition we 
lead, there is no doubt: We will confront a growing danger, to protect 
ourselves, to remove a patron and protector of terror, and to keep the 
peace of the world.
    Thank you for listening.

[[Page 330]]

Note: The address was recorded at 10:21 a.m. on March 14 in the Cabinet 
Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on March 15. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
March 14 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. In his 
remarks, the President referred to President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The 
Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of this address.