Iraqi People

Re the March 2 terrorist bombings in Iraq: Terrorism has hit the mosques of Iraq in attacks attributed to Abu Musab Zarqawi of Al Qaeda. After all of the Arab accusations directed at President Bush for launching "an attack on the Iraqi people," where is the outrage that Al Qaeda has been attacking the Iraqi people? After the charges that this was an American war against Islam, where is the Muslim outrage at Al Qaeda for killing Muslims in Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere? In the ultimate irony, it is Osama bin Laden who has declared war against the Iraqi people and against Islam.

TODAY IN BAGHDAD, terrorists turned their violence against the United Nations. The U.N. personnel and Iraqi citizens killed in the bombing were in that country on a purely humanitarian mission. Men and women in the targeted building were working on reconstruction, medical care for Iraqis, they were there to help with the distribution of food. A number have been killed or injured. And to those who suffer, I extend the sympathy of the American people. A SHORT TIME AGO, I spoke with ambassador [L.

If all members of Congress were 100% in support of Bush's military invasion to drive Iraq out of Kuwait, Hussein would have already withdrawn from Kuwait. But because there are lots of dissenters in Congress, Hussein believes that the hands of President Bush are tied and incapable of pressing the button in his briefcase. The Iraqi people are 100% supportive of their leader. Why can't we do that for our President? Let's give our leader 104% support, please. After all, we chose him to lead our nation.

Today Iraqi political leaders completed the process for drafting a permanent constitution. Their example is an inspiration to all who share the universal values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law. The negotiators and drafters of this document braved the intimidation of terrorists, and they mourn the cowardly assassination of friends and colleagues involved in the process of drafting the constitution.

Facing opposition from Muslim conservatives, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan said Sunday that they would be reluctant to send troops to Iraq without a clear invitation from the Iraqi people. The United States wants to broaden the occupation forces in Iraq, especially with soldiers from Muslim nations. Washington has turned to Pakistan in particular with a request for at least 10,000 troops. "If the people of Iraq ask for help, Pakistan as a brotherly country will do what it can.

President Bush's effort to send a videotaped message to the Iraqi people hit a snag today when the Iraqi ambassador refused to accept a copy of the message during a visit to the State Department. But the envoy suggested that once a "better procedure" was found for delivery of the tape, it will be shown to the Iraqi people "in its entirety" during "prime time."

If -- or almost certainly when -- we go to war in Iraq, it will not be for humanitarian reasons. We will go to strike preemptively at terrorism's biggest opportunist and shadiest eminence grise, Saddam Hussein. But we will go for other, less presentable, reasons too. We will go, as we did in 1991, to secure our oil interests in the region, to wrest an indispensable commodity from the hands of a hostile vendor.

You wake up in the morning to find your nostrils clogged. Houses and trees have vanished beneath a choking brown smog. A hot wind blasts fine particles through doors and windows, coating everything in sight and imparting an eerie orange glow. Dust storms are a routine experience in Iraq, but lately they've become a whole lot more common.

Today the people of Iraq have spoken to the world, and the world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East. In great numbers, and under great risk, Iraqis have shown their commitment to democracy. By participating in free elections, the Iraqi people have firmly rejected the anti-democratic ideology of the terrorists. They have refused to be intimidated by thugs and assassins. And they have demonstrated the kind of courage that is always the foundation of self-government.