President Bush blasted Iraq's \grave threat"" to world peace and American security in a nationally televised address Monday evening, pledging to thwart ""the most serious dangers of our age.""
In the speech, Bush did not advocate any further action than he has already proposed. He urged Congress to support his resolution to authorize the use of military force in Iraq, but also said ""approving this resolution does not mean that military action is imminent or unavoidable.""
However, Bush left little doubt he wants to act and act soon.
""Some have argued we should wait. In my view, that's the riskiest option,"" he said. ""The longer we wait, the stronger and bolder Saddam Hussein will become.""
Bush said Iraq possesses ballistic missiles with a range large enough to strike Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey, adding Iraq possesses massive stockpiles of chemical weapons, like anthrax, mustard gas, sarin nerve gas and VX nerve gas.
""Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof-the smoking gun'that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud,"" he said.
Bush warned Iraq is rebuilding its nuclear weapons program, in violation with its agreement with the United Nations. Although the United States does not have evidence that Iraq currently possesses nuclear weapons, Bush said the International Atomic Energy Agency closed nuclear weapons sites in Iraq as recently as 1998.
""Many people have asked how close Saddam Hussein is to developing a nuclear weapon. Well, we don't know exactly, and that's the problem,"" he said. ""If the Iraqi regime is able to produce, buy or steal an amount of highly enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year.""
Bush's rhetoric didn't convince UW-Madison political science Professor David Canon, who said the speech was a paler copy of the one Bush gave to the United Nations last month.
""It covered the same ground. He offered a little bit more in the way of details about links between al Qaeda and Iraq, but nothing substantially new,"" Canon said.
Canon also questioned the validity of Bush's evidence.
""He's not providing critical evidence on links between terrorist groups and the leadership in Iraq,"" he said. ""If the standard is [just] to have terrorist groups in a given country, well, we've got them in our own country.""
Whether the speech influences public support remains to be seen. Although Bush targeted the American public as well as their representatives, the 25 to 30 percent of American homes that don't have cable or satellite couldn't watch the speech, as none of the major broadcast channels carried it, according to UW-Madison journalism Professor James Baughman.
""[Networks] worried about losing audiences to [cable] networks which weren't carrying the president's speech,"" he said.
Several politicians who oppose military action said afterwards that the president's speech didn't sway their convictions.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who plans to vote against Bush's resolution, said that the power to declare war is a solemn responsibility that Congress ""must not delegate to the president in advance.""
U.S. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, D-Ohio, a leader of those against the invasion in the House, said Bush's ""repeated attempts to connect Iraq to 9/11 through innuendo and implication erode the administration's credibility.""
