WAR is coming!!!!!
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/americas/view/34751/1/.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030314/ap_on_re_mi_ea/us_iraq_60
Bush Considers Dropping U.N. Resolution
1 hour, 45 minutes ago
By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON - Forced into a diplomatic retreat, U.S. officials said
Thursday that President Bush (news - web sites) may delay a vote on
his troubled U.N. resolution or even drop it and fight Iraq (news
- web sites) without the international body's backing. France
dismissed a compromise plan as an "automatic recourse to
war."
Amid a swirl of recrimination and 11th-hour posturing, the White
House began planning for a possible overseas meeting this weekend
between President Bush and his two staunchest allies on Iraq,
British Prime Mininster Tony Blair (news - web sites) and Spanish
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
Senior U.S. officials said the meeting, tentatively planned for a
neutral nation overseas, would allow the leaders to review final
diplomatic and military strategies. The officials, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said all three leaders and the host nation
had not signed off on the summit Thursday night, and there would be
no final word on the prospects for a meeting before Friday.
News of the meeting first surfaced Thursday morning, but officials
said planning had stopped only to confirm hours later that talks
had begun again. Early in the day, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan (news - web sites) raised the possibility of a global summit
"to get us out of this crisis."
The government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)
exulted in the diplomatic tumult over a U.S.-British backed
resolution that would demand that Iraq disarm by Monday. The allies
"have lost the round before it starts while we, along with
well-intentioned powers in the world, have won it," the popular
daily Babil, owned by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's son, Odai,
said in a front-page editorial.
Bush spent a fourth day on the telephone, consulting leaders of
Britain, Bulgaria, South Korea (news - web sites), Poland, El
Salvador (news - web sites) and Norway.
The U.S. diplomatic drive was centered on Chile and Mexico, both
members of the U.N. Security Council, a senior administration
official said. Their support would ensure the United States of the
minimum nine votes need for adoption of the resolution.
But France's threat to veto is taken seriously, and the
administration may decide not to give France the chance by
withdrawing the resolution, the official said on condition of
anonymity. Bush was ready to drop the resolution, several aides
said, if British Prime Minister Tony Blair didn't want it put to a
vote.
The president has pushed for a U.N. vote thus far out of respect
for Blair, whose support of Bush has drawn severe criticism in
Britain.
Trouble loomed at every diplomatic turn.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, visiting Bush at the White
House, said, "If there is not a resolution, Ireland cannot engage
in support of military action, because we work under the U.N.
resolution."
Bush sent a letter to incoming Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) called the leader
in hopes of securing permission to invade Iraq through Turkey.
Hours later, Navy ships armed with Tomahawk missiles were told to
move out of the Mediterranean into the Red Sea, a move that
indicates weakening U.S. confidence that Turkey will grant
overflight rights for U.S. planes and missiles.
In Baghdad, the Iraqi government rejected a British compromise plan
that would list six disarmament requirements Baghdad would have to
meet or else face "serious consequences." Bush had signaled he
would be willing to push back the March 17 deadline seven or 10
days if the gesture would help Blair.
Russia said it would consider the plan. China said it doubted the
plan could lead to consensus.
The French dismissed the effort outright, sparking a trans-Atlantic
shouting match.
"We cannot accept the British proposals insofar as they are part of
a logic of war, a logic of automatic recourse to war," said French
Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said
of France: "They rejected it before Iraq rejected it. If that isn't
an unreasonable veto, what is?"
Bush, meanwhile, backpedaled on his pledge to have a U.N. vote by
Friday. Fleischer told reporters a tally could slip beyond the
weekend.
Several top administration officials said a growing number of
advisers believe the resolution is doomed and they want the
president to cut his losses and withdraw it. Others still hold out
hope for the measure.
The officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, agreed
that a key is whether Blair wants Bush to give diplomacy more
time.
Bush and his advisers debated Thursday whether to press forward
with the vote or withdraw the measure and pivot quickly to war
footing. Bush has long planned to address the nation shortly after
the U.N. debate is resolved and give Saddam a final ultimatum,
perhaps including a deadline, for war.
"We are still talking to members of the council to see what is
possible," Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said.
"The options remain, go for a vote and see what members say or not
go for a vote."
That's a change of policy since last week, when Bush said he wanted
U.N. members to "show their cards" even if that meant the measure
failed.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (news - web sites), John
Negroponte, didn't call for a vote Friday and diplomats doubted one
would be called for Saturday.
In London, Iain Duncan Smith, leader of the opposition Conservative
Party, emerged from a meeting with Blair to say the prime minister
believed war was more likely because "the French have become
completely intransigent."
Powell, testifying on Capitol Hill, said the "day of reckoning is
fast approaching" for Iraq.