Washington: Shrugging off protests against a war on Iraq, United States on February
21 expressed confidence that it will have even more allies for attacking Baghdad
than it had during the 1991 Gulf war.
Though war against Iraq will be will be a last resort, should there be a war, US is
confident that it will have even more allies than during the Gulf war, Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a public television network.
As against the opposition of Germany and France to the US policy on Iraq, 18
European countries have issued statements of support, he added.
Rumsfeld said the US military is prepared for all contingencies in Iraq and put the
chance of Saddam Hussein deciding to leave Iraq and avoid war at "not much but more
than zero".
If it is going to be war, Rumsfeld made it clear that the US mission would be to
change the regime and disarm the country of weapons of mass destruction.
"What follows would be Iraq for the Iraqi people. It would not be a regime
determined from outside of Iraq.
"The oil in Iraq is the oil of the Iraqi people. Speculation that somebody is
interested in their oil is nonsense. That oil belongs to the Iraqi people and it
will be a matter for the Iraqi people," he said.
Rumsfeld said whatever co-operation Saddam Hussein is now giving the UN inspectors
is the result of the US preparations for war. But Saddam still does not seem
prepared to meet the Security Council's demand that he disarm.
He also described Saddam's regime as "one of the most vicious regimes on the face of
the earth".
PTI
