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CNN Live At Daybreak

Saddam Dilemma: To Contain or Topple?

Aired July 29, 2002 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The debate over Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will be on the front burner in Washington this week during Senate hearings. Now, most of the Bush administration agree that President Hussein has to go, but as CNN's Patty Davis reports, there is no consensus on how to do it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A split in the Pentagon on how to get rid of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The Pentagon's top civilian leaders support use of military force. In Turkey earlier this month, the deputy defense secretary outlined why.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY: We believe that the current regime in Iraq is a serious danger to the United States and to other countries, because it's hostile to us, because it supports terrorism, because it has weapons of mass destruction and is seeking to develop more.

DAVIS: While the Pentagon's senior uniform military agree Saddam has to go, some are against military action at this time. They favor the current policy of containment, including striking Iraq as coalition forces did Sunday in the southern no-fly zone.

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Some people in the State Department and CIA and the military will oppose the war and favor containment; others will favor overthrow. And ultimately, it's one of those tough, lonely decisions only a president can make.

DAVIS: That debate is likely to heat up this week as the Senate holds hearings on Iraq.

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: When we go in and if we go in and take out Saddam Hussein, how long will we have to stay? Will it require tens of thousands of troops to be there for three, four, five years?

DAVIS: Some military officials worry Iraq could fall apart if the U.S. attacks, since there is no one viable opposition there to unify the country.

Another concern: How to wage war in urban Baghdad without massive casualties.

U.S. ally, Jordan, asks if now is the time?

KING ABDULLAH, JORDAN: Trying to even take on the question of Iraq, with the lack of positive movement on the Israeli -- Palestinian-Israeli-Arab track seems at this point somewhat ludicrous.

DAVIS: Many other U.S. allies also oppose the use of force, a point Iraq seizes upon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is not up to the United States to interfere in the internal affairs of other nations. This is against international law.

DAVIS (on camera): President Bush maintains there are no war plans on his desk, and that he has made no decision. Even so, the State Department and the Pentagon have invited Iraqi opposition leaders to Washington next month to discuss regime change.

Patty Davis, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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