World

Bush: 'The Tyrant Will Soon Be Gone'

By Joel Roberts

March 18, 2003 / 7:08 AM EST / CBS

With war appearing inevitable and imminent, President Bush on Monday night gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to flee Iraq or face a U.S.-led invasion.

"Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours," Mr. Bush said in a nationally televised address. "Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict to commence at a time of our choosing."

The president spoke on the same day the U.S. abandoned efforts at winning United Nations backing for a resolution authorizing military action. He expressed disappointment that the U.N. had failed to stand beside the United States.

"The United Nations Security Council has not lived up to its responsibilities so we will rise to ours," the president said.

He said there can be no "appeasement" of Saddam because it could bring "destruction of a kind never before seen on this earth."

For the first time since he drew the nation's attention to Iraq last fall, Bush focused on the questions most asked by Americans: Why war? And why now?

Spelling out the threat, he said Saddam has a history of hating America, has ties to terrorists and is a destabilizing force in the Middle East. Primarily, he said Saddam could turn his weapons of mass destruction over to terrorist groups.

"Before the day of horror can come, before it is too late to act, this danger will be removed," Bush said.

"The United States did nothing to deserve or invite this threat, but we will do everything to defeat it. Instead of drifting along toward tragedy, we will set a course toward safety," the president said from the White House.

Mr. Bush spoke after deciding to raise the nation's terrorism alert from yellow to orange, the second-highest category of risk. U.S. officials said the president feared the war might lead to retaliatory strikes against U.S. interests at home and abroad.

"The tyrant will soon be gone," he said.

The 48-hour clock started at 8 p.m. EST Monday, White House spokesman Adam Levine said.

The president also addressed the Iraqi people, telling them: "The day of your liberation is near."

And he had a warning for Iraqi soldiers: "If war comes, do not fight for a dying regime that is not worth your own life." To civilians in Iraq, he said, "If we must begin a military campaign it will be directed to lawless men who direct your country and not at you."

He pledged the United States would provide food, medicine and other assistance as Iraq recovers from war.

According to CBS News Analyst and retired NATO Commander Gen. Joseph Ralston, Mr. Bush's address was a "loud and clear signal to the men and women in uniform" that they would soon be on the battlefield.

Earlier Monday, the effort to achieve a diplomatic solution to the Iraqi crisis came to an end when Britain's ambassador withdrew a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing war. The U.S. and Britain blamed France for the failure of the resolution, but the French said the resolution was withdrawn because the U.S. lacked the votes needed for passage.

Saddam, showing no sign of heeding U.S. demands that he step down, warned that American forces will find an Iraqi fighter ready to die for his country "behind every rock, tree and wall."

He also said Iraq once had weapons of mass destruction, but denied still possessing them. "When Saddam Hussein says he has no weapons of mass destruction, he means what he says," the Iraqi leader was quoted as saying in a meeting with a Tunisian diplomat.

In other developments:

A CBS News poll finds that Americans appear to have lost patience with U.S. allies and the U.N., and a majority would approve of a strike against Iraq with or without United Nations support. Three out of four Americans say allowing Iraq more time to disarm would only postpone an inevitable war, not lead to a peaceful solution.

The United Nations ordered its weapons inspectors out of Iraq, widening the stream of diplomats and foreign journalists heading for the exits before any shooting starts.

Unless Saddam reverses course or is ousted by a coup, senior officials say the final battle could begin just a day or two after Mr. Bush's ultimatum expires, CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports.

There are now a quarter-million American troops in position for the start of the war; 150,000 of them in Kuwait, where U.N. observers completed their pullout from the border area and the U.S. Embassy told all Americans to get out.

Five of the six Republican Guard divisions – Saddam's best fighting units – have now left their garrisons and dispersed in what appears to be an effort to ride out the initial wave of air attacks, which could include as many as 600 cruise missiles in the first 24 hours, and wait for the U.S. forces to come to them.

Turkey's cabinet will meet to discuss the government taking urgent action to allow in U.S. troops into the country.

U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, ignoring the threat of a possibly imminent war, prepared to give the Security Council a 30-page report listing about a dozen key remaining disarmament tasks that Iraq should complete in the coming months.

Israel's military instructed Israelis to acquire all the equipment they need to protect themselves in case of an Iraqi attack.