- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- When
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spelled out the eight U.S. objectives
in Iraq on day two of the war, he said the first was to topple Saddam Hussein
and the second to locate and destroy Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
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- On day 10 of the war, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke
restated those eight objectives "as Secretary Rumsfeld described just
a week ago."
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- Ending the Iraqi president's rule remained top of the
list, but finding Saddam's suspected chemical and biological weapons had
slipped to fourth place and destroying them to fifth.
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- Objective No. 2 was "to capture or drive out terrorists
sheltered in Iraq" and No. 3 was to "collect intelligence on
terrorist networks," Clarke said.
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- References to terror, terrorists and terrorism -- words
that resonate with Americans since the Sept. 11 attacks -- now arise more
often in the face of unexpectedly stiff resistance from Iraqi fighters
using guerrilla-style tactics.
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- President Bush now more frequently describes Iraq's leaders
as evil, brutal and tyrannical and his supporters as thugs. "Freeing
the Iraqi people" has replaced disarming Iraq as the main focus of
his speeches.
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- Some analysts see the re-ordering of priorities and shriller
language as a response to the realities on the ground in Iraq. Saddam has
not used non-conventional weapons and U.S. and British troops have so far
not found any to justify a war which much of the international community
opposes.
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- "It's the customary pattern," said Michael
Codner, an analyst at Britain's Royal United Services Institute for Defense
Studies. "There hasn't been much incremental return on the WMD side
for the democracies to gloat over," he said.
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- Many analysts, both in the United States and abroad,
however, see the shifts either as a consequence of Bush's failure to making
a convincing case for war or as evidence of a hidden agenda in the Middle
East.
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- "I've always been of the view that one good argument
is better than five bad ones," said John Pike, director of the Virginia-based
strategic think-tank GlobalSecurity.org. "They've had five half-hearted
ones, badly enunciated."
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- BUSH SHIFTS FOCUS
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- Bush ordered troops into Iraq under a new security doctrine,
forged after Sept. 11 in the war on terrorism, that says the United States
can launch a pre-emptive strike on a country it deems a threat before it
is attacked itself.
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- In the case of Iraq, his argument was that Saddam's alleged
weapons of mass destruction not only posed a threat to the region but could
also fall into the hands of groups like al Qaeda and be turned on America.
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- When he gave Saddam 48 hours on March 17 to flee Iraq
or face war, the entire thrust of Bush's address concerned Iraq's failure
over 12 years to abide by U.N. resolutions. Disarming Iraq was an issue
he raised no fewer than 11 times.
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- Since then, he has continued to talk of disarming Iraq,
yet increasingly in a secondary manner. In a speech in Philadelphia on
Monday, "freeing the Iraqi people" appeared to have become his
main reason for going to war.
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- "We're coming with a mighty force to end the reign
of your oppressors. We are coming to bring you food and medicine and a
better life. And we are coming and we will not stop, we will not relent
until your country is free," Bush said.
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- REGIME CHANGE
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- "Regime change" in Iraq was a bedrock of U.S.
policy long before Bush tried to win U.N. backing for use of military force
to disarm Iraq and failed in the face of international opposition led by
France, Germany, Russia and China.
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- "We've been seeing hints of the real aim since Sept.
11, but now the cat is out of the bag," said Dietmar Herz, a political
science professor at the University of Erfurt, Germany.
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- "What's especially alarming, in particular for Europeans
is the religious emphasis that has been coming through from Bush lately.
It's the crusade message, the fight of 'good versus evil' and 'right versus
wrong'," he said.
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- Analysts in several other countries broadly opposed to
the war said the shifting U.S. rhetoric would reinforce doubts about Bush's
real motives in Iraq.
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- "Whether it's terrorism, or weapons of mass destruction
or liberating Iraq and ousting Saddam, the excuses have been changing constantly,"
said Li Jianying, vice president of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign
Affairs.
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- "I think the basic reasoning behind the policy,
as far as most people around the world are concerned, is for oil and control
of the Gulf region," Li said.
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- Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service
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