Iraqi's see nothing new in Bush's speech

Iraqis were unimpressed by George Bush’s speech, saying it only showed the US President’s determination to go to war.

“Again, Bush’s speech contains nothing but threats that do not help in reaching a peaceful resolution for our ongoing tragedy,” said Salman Mohammed, a history teacher in the capital Baghdad.

Across the region, Arabs also said Bush’s speech showed he would launch an attack on Iraq soon.

“Last night’s speech confirms that although there is no case for war, Bush is determined to launch it,” Jordanian political analyst Labib Kamhawi said in Amman.

“The pressure is mounting against this war both inside and outside the United States. This is why it is more likely that Bush will launch his war sooner rather than later in order to avoid the growing pressure.”

In Baghdad, secondary school teacher Dia’a al-Na’eimy, 55, joined dozens of others at a blood bank, saying her donation was a way of demonstrating support for President Saddam Hussein in his confrontation with Bush.

“Our presence here today is a response to Bush’s speech and it is a strong and decisive response. We will protect our leader with our blood,” she said.

Ahmed Taha, an Iraqi university student said he had hoped Bush would have used “new words like dialogue and peace rather than his old words like war and accusations”.

In his speech, Bush said Saddam and his “nuclear holy warriors” could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year.

Bush called Saddam a “murderous tyrant” and said he may be plotting to attack the United States with biological and chemical weapons.

And he said al-Qaida, the terror network blamed for the September 11 attacks, shared with Iraq a hatred of the United States, had had high level contacts with Baghdad for a decade and sent agents to Iraq to learn to make bombs and use poison weapons.

Bush said some al-Qaida leaders had fled to Iraq after their haven in Afghanistan was attacked by the US in retaliation for September 11.

“And we know that after September 11, Saddam Hussein’s regime gleefully celebrated the terrorist attacks on America,” Bush said.

On the day of the September 11 attacks, Iraqi TV played a patriotic song with the words, “Down with America,” as it showed the towers of New York’s World Trade Centre falling.

But Bush said his country bears no hostility against Iraqi people and his aim is to remove the dangers he says are posed by Saddam.

Hill Khalif, a 53-year-old grocery shop owner in downtown Baghdad, was not reassured by Bush’s overture to ordinary Iraqis, saying Bush could not pursue friendship by “working on destroying my country”.

And elsewhere in the region, Bush’s words were greeted with similar scepticism.

“While we agree with (Bush) that Saddam as a person cannot be trusted and poses a danger and that both him and al-Qaida are a menace, we need to hear from the American president clear evidence that would confirm America’s credibility,” said Massouma al-Mubarak, a political scientist at Kuwait University.