April 2003

Iraq: A Present Danger

The National Committee on American Foreign Policy's Task Force on the Middle East considers that Iraq's present regime constitutes a threat to the peace and security of the region and the rest of the world.

Curbing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and defeating terrorism are of paramount importance for ensuring international security and constitute a cardinal interest of the United States. Saddam Hussein is well known to be a brutal dictator. His use of weapons of mass destruction (e.g., in the war against Iran and against his own people), his support of terrorism (e.g., sheltering and training terrorists and rewarding families of militant Islamic suicide bombers), and his flouting of UN Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 1441, are actions representative of his regime.

Efforts to orchestrate an international response to Saddam Hussein's scorn of the UN are laudable and welcome. But the United States, as a victim of militant Islamic terrorism, has the sovereign right and responsibility to defend itself and to defeat terrorism, a right that also accords with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations and the actions of the Security Council to date. President George W. Bush, like President John F. Kennedy in 1962, is acting decisively to ensure the security of the United States pursuant to a policy initiated in 1998 by President Bill Clinton and the U.S. Congress in the Iraq Liberation Act and now embodied in the Joint Resolution adopted on October 11, 2002, that authorized the use of U.S. armed forces against Iraq.

The removal of the threat represented by Saddam Hussein and his regime must not be the only goal. It is in the vital interests of the United States as well as the rest of the world to build a civil society in Iraq that is committed to the values and practice of political, cultural, and religious pluralism and to human rights as well as to bring stability to the region and foster an atmosphere that can promote a peaceful resolution of other issues.