Bush: 'The Man Must Disarm'

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein must comply with U.N. resolutions or the United States will lead a coalition to disarm him, Bush said during a visit to the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Operations Center.

"We're through negotiations," he said. "There's no more time. The man must disarm. This kind of deception and delay, all that's over with. The country is committed to making the world more peaceful by disarming Saddam Hussein. It's just as simple as that. There's a zero tolerance policy now."

For the past 11 years, Saddam has tried to deceive the world, Bush noted, "and we're through with it."

The president discounted the Iraqi parliament's rejection of the U.N. resolution passed Nov. 8 calling for disarmament.

"The Iraqi parliament is nothing but a rubber stamp for Saddam Hussein," Bush said. "There's no democracy. This guy's a dictator. And so we'll have to see what he says.

U.N. Resolution 1441 recognizes the threat Iraq's continued noncompliance with previous U.N. resolutions poses.

The resolution gives Iraq 30 days from the date of the resolution to provide "a current, accurate, full and complete declaration of all aspects" of its weapons of mass destruction programs. Iraq must provide information on all delivery systems and on all aspects of its research and development programs. The resolution forces Iraq to provide "immediate, unimpeded, unconditional, and unrestricted access" to areas in the country.

Army Gen. Tommy Franks, combatant commander of U.S. Central Command and speaking in Florida this morning, said President Bush has not made a decision to go to war in Iraq. He said the president has decided, however, that Saddam's "cheat, retreat" tactics and flouting of U.N. Security Council resolutions "will not stand."

The decision to be made is up to Saddam Hussein and his regime, Franks said. "The only road that is not available to us in the future," he added, "is the road we have recently been on, which permits the reconstitution of weapons of mass destruction which, at some point, could fall or be placed in the hands of state-sponsored or transnational terrorists."

America's future, the general said, must be secured by putting in "a roadblock in order to preclude the possibility of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism coming together."