[Peace] cheney

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

By SCOTT LINDLAW
.c The Associated Press 

WASHINGTON (Sept. 8) - Saddam Hussein is ``actively and aggressively'' trying 
to build a nuclear bomb, Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday as he argued 
that the United States is justified in striking first against any government 
that plans to attack America.

President Bush outlined a new foreign policy doctrine in June warning he will 
take ``pre-emptive action, when necessary, to defend our liberty and to 
defend our lives.'' He mentioned no specific nations at the time. Cheney said 
Saddam seems to fit that description.

``We find ourselves on the one hand with a demonstrated greater vulnerability 
- Sept.11 - and on the other hand with the very clear evidence that this is a 
man who is resuming all those programs that the U.N. Security Council tried 
to get him to forgo some 10 or 11 years ago,'' Cheney said on NBC's ``Meet 
the Press.'' ``And increasingly we believe the United States will become the 
target of those activities.''

Saddam has the technical expertise and designs for a nuclear weapon, and has 
been seeking a type of aluminum tube needed to enrich uranium for a weapon, 
Cheney said. ``We know we have a part of the picture and that part of the 
picture tells us that he is in fact actively and aggressively seeking to 
acquire nuclear weapons,'' he said.

The Iraqi president has also stepped up his efforts to produce and deliver 
biological weapons, Cheney said.

Assessing Saddam's suspected weapons arsenal, Secretary of State Colin Powell 
said, ``I think he is a danger to American interests right now, our interest 
in the region and, in due course, interest elsewhere as he develops the 
capability to deliver this kind of weapon at greater ranges.''

Powell, on ``Fox News Sunday,'' added: ``But I don't think we should just sit 
around and wait to see whether or not he does it or not.''

Iraq's vice president on Sunday denied that his country is trying to collect 
nuclear material or building up sites that U.N. weapons inspectors used to 
visit. Taha Yassin Ramadan, speaking to reporters in Baghdad, charged that 
the United States and Britain are seeking an excuse to attack Iraq.

``They are telling lies and lies to make others believe them,'' Ramadan said.

Critics - some of them in countries allied with the United States - have 
questioned whether military action to achieve the U.S. government's goal of 
removing Saddam from power is legal under international law.

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the administration must consider pre-emptive 
strikes to head off attacks against the United States, Cheney said.

``If we have reason to believe someone is preparing an attack against the 
U.S., has developed that capability, harbors those aspirations, then I think 
the U.S. is justified in dealing with that if necessary by military force,'' 
he said.

Squeamish European allies have neither the experience of a massive attack 
like the one on Sept. 11, nor the ability to topple Saddam, Cheney said.

Cheney said that if the United States led an attack on Iraq, American forces 
would have to stay there for a prolonged period afterward to ensure ``we 
stood up a new government and helped the Iraqi people decide how they want to 
govern themselves until there was a peaceful stability.''

War could be very costly, he said.

But, he added, ``The danger of an attack against the U.S. by someone with the 
weapons that Saddam Hussein now possesses or is acquiring is far more costly 
than what it would cost us to go deal with this problem.''

``The risk here that has to be weighed isn't just what's it going to cost you 
to do this today, it's what will the cost be if you don't do it?'' he said.