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CNN Live Sunday

Bush Considers Options Against Hussein

Aired August 18, 2002 - 18:02   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A Pentagon adviser says the U.S. does not need approval across Europe to go after Iraq, but would need the support of Britain. President Bush is considering various options against Saddam Hussein while congressional leaders are urging caution. CNN's senior White House correspondent, John King, joins us from Crawford, Texas, with more on this -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Carol. The president says this intensifying debate about Iraq is healthy and that he's listening even to his skeptics and his critics. But the president also making clear that when he has to make a decision about possible military action, he won't decide based on whether he has political support, that he will make that decision based on U.S. intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): A quiet Sunday for the president, out of view at his Texas ranch while a top adviser rebutted those who say Mr. Bush is in a rush to go to war with Iraq.

DAN BARTLETT, W.H. COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: President Bush is very patient. That he's going to be deliberate and he's going to do this in a very thoughtful way.

KING: Removing Saddam Hussein from power is a Bush priority. The questions -- how and when?

RICHARD PERLE, DEFENSE POLICY BOARD: We waited too long to deal with Osama bin Laden. The timing was never right. We didn't want to pre-empt. And so he acted first. We mustn't wait too long this time.

KING: But other influential Republicans say Mr. Bush has not yet answered their questions.

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR (R), INDIANA: What the cost of this will be, who will be with us, who are the allies, where are the bases, have we exhausted all of our intelligence resources, and do we have concurrence of the Congress through a vote to authorize this?

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: The fundamental question is this -- who replaces Saddam? Do you further destabilize the Middle East?

KING: Also among those urging caution are former White House National Security Advisers Brent Scowcroft, a close Bush family friend, and Carter white house aide Zbigniew Brzezinski. Brzezinski warns in a "Washington Post" essay that "war is too serious a business to be undertaken because of a personal peeve, demagogically articulated fears, or vague factual assertions." Top Bush aides call the criticism unwarranted.

BARTLETT: The president hasn't asked for support because he hasn't made up his mind. But I think you'll find many people rallying to such a noble cause.

KING: Vice President Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers are due at the Bush ranch Wednesday. Officials say missile defense, not Iraq, is the main focus of the meeting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: One Republican senator, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma said today, quote, "this is being talked to death," meaning he believes there's too much speculation about a possible military confrontation in the media. That is certainly the view of the Bush White House as well, although they know the president because of all this pressure from fellow Republicans in Congress will be under even more pressure when he comes back from this vacation to explain his views to the American people -- Carol.

LIN: Well, there you go, John. When are we going to hear from the president? When do you think he will address the American people to lay out his reasons for an attack against Saddam Hussein?

KING: Well, first, he would have to decide to have such an attack. And officials tell us at the highest levels despite all this debate from Congress, all this pressure for more answers, that the president has not made that decision. Many believe such a decision will not be made for weeks, if not months, until late this year or early next year. They don't rule out something sooner, but most officials tell us don't expect anything before the November elections, don't even expect anything immediately after, that the president is still mulling his options. And that's why he's not consulting aggressively with Congress or aggressively with the U.S. allies, because he doesn't know what he's going to do yet.

LIN: Well, as he mulls, on what information is he going to base this decision that may not come for weeks or months?

KING: Well, there is a debate within the Republican Party and within some in the White House about how to communicate that. Some say that Mr. Bush makes this too personal by saying Saddam Hussein is an evil man who has gassed his population in the past. They say those allegations go back some 20 years.

What Mr. Bush is being urged to do by many advisers is focus on the simple fact that Saddam Hussein signed a piece of paper at the end of the Persian Gulf War, promising that the United Nations could have unfettered weapons inspections in Iraq. It has now been several years since those inspectors were kicked out. Mr. Bush should focus on that, that Saddam Hussein broke his word, and if he can, share publicly any U.S. intelligence that Iraq is rebuilding those weapons programs.

That, most advisers believe, would be the strongest case to the American people, to show, as we discussed, weapons of mass destruction, weapons that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda might have for the president to say there is a clear and present threat in Iraq, Mr. Saddam Hussein is rebuilding those weapons. But U.S. officials have shown no such firm intelligence publicly, at least not yet.

LIN: Not yet. All right. Thank you very much, John King, reporting live from Crawford, Texas.

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