The Hindu : U.S. warns of 'n-response' to attack

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 12, 2002

International

International

U.S. warns of 'n-response' to attack

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington dec. 11. In what is a clear message and warning to Iraq, the Bush administration has said that the United States will respond with "overwhelming force'' in response to any attack with weapons of mass destruction on it, its troops or allies.

A six-page White House document is being sent to Congress which is called the "National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction''. The U.S., according to the document "reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force — including through the resort to all of our options — to the use of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) against the U.S., our forces abroad and friends and allies''.

The U.S. response will involve also the use of nuclear weapons, even if this is not specifically cited. In the past, the Bush administration refused to rule out the use of nuclear weapons saying that it had "all options'' at its disposal. The White House document and the strategy that has been jointly developed by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and the Director of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, is well timed to show to Iraq and the international community that Washington and this Republican administration meant business this time around.

What is being pointed out is that the document is remarkably similar to the message the former Secretary of State, James Baker, delivered to Baghdad in the run up to the Persian Gulf War of January 1991.

Mr. Baker essentially made the point to the Saddam Hussein regime that if Iraq used any weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. objective would not just be the liberation of Kuwait but the elimination of the Iraqi regime — and this was to be seen as a promise and not a threat. Part of the calculation this time is what the response of the U.S. would be in the event of Iraq carrying out attacks on American forces and others with chemical or biological weapons.

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