WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- In one of his most detailed justifications for disarming Iraq immediately, President George W. Bush told a selected audience at a Cincinnati museum that America "cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.
"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," he warned.
He said that "satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past" and added that it has attempted to purchase materials to enrich uranium. The White House made copies of the photographs -- first revealed last week by the Central Intelligence Agency -- available to reporters.
In an address that quoted President John F. Kennedy and was clearly designed to be reminiscent of JFK's warning to the Soviet Union upon discovering missiles in Cuba, Bush said that his aim was not war, but disarmament.
"Later this week, the United States Congress will vote on this matter," Bush said. "I have asked Congress to authorize the use of America's military, if it proves necessary, to enforce U.N. Security Council demands.
"Approving this resolution does not mean that military action is imminent or unavoidable. The resolution will tell the United Nations, and all nations, that America speaks with one voice and is determined to make the demands of the civilized world mean something," Bush said.
He seemed to adjust, if not change, his position on whether the United States would go it alone, if it cannot get a strong U.N. resolution demanding that Iraq disarm and open its nation to sweeping inspection.
"The time for denying, deceiving and delaying has come to an end," Bush said. "Saddam Hussein must disarm himself -- or, for the sake of peace, we will lead a coalition to disarm him."
Bush said: "Many nations are joining us in insisting that Saddam Hussein's regime be held accountable" and "they are committed to defending the international security that protects the lives of both our citizens and theirs."
But Democrats opposed to military intervention criticized the timing of the speech in the "supercharged" pre-election political atmosphere.
Bush said that in addition to the imminent threat he might obtain a nuclear weapon, Saddam has large stocks of anthrax -- an airborne biological weapon capable of killing millions -- and a large supply of deadly chemical agents that he has shown a willingness to use before.
"This is a massive stockpile of biological weapons that has never been accounted for," Bush said.
Bush also said Iraq "possesses ballistic missiles with a likely range of hundreds of miles -- far enough to strike Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey and other nations -- in a region where more than 135,000 American civilians and service members live and work."
He said that the United States has also "discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas."
"We are concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using UAVs for missions targeting the United States," Bush said.
In somber and at times almost soft tones, he said that "knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. 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."
Although the White House had advertised Bush's remarks as an important foreign policy address, the major networks did not carry the nearly 29-minute address, but it was broadcast by several cable channels. He spoke to an audience of about 500 selected guests at the Cincinnati Museum Center at 8 p.m. (EDT).
His Cincinnati address comes only days after he won bipartisan support from some in Congress for a strongly worded resolution that would allow the president to order an attack on Iraq without consulting Congress.
Congress begins formal debate on the resolution Tuesday.
But public debate about war with Iraq has dominated the U.S. and much of the world since Bush returned from vacation in early September and stepped up his rhetoric against Saddam.
Monday, a New York Times/CBS News poll found that 69 percent of the people surveyed thought Bush should be paying more attention to the economy and the proportion of people who approve of his handling of the economy dropped to 41 percent.
Bush attempted to stress that of all the dangers in the world, Iraq and Saddam remained unique and to end the suggestion that Iraq would be one conquest to be followed by others.
"While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone -- because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place ... By its past and present actions, by its technological capabilities, by the merciless nature of its regime, Iraq is unique," Bush said.
"The time for denying, deceiving and delaying has come to an end. Saddam Hussein must disarm himself -- or, for the sake of peace, we will lead a coalition to disarm him."
Bush reaffirmed America's commitment to providing a better life for the people of Iraq: "America is a friend to the people of Iraq. Our demands are directed only at the regime that enslaves them and threatens us. When these demands are met, the first and greatest benefit will come to Iraqi men, women, and children."
After the speech, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W. Va., the powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that this was not the time to be talking about war. The atmosphere just prior to an election, he said, was "supercharged with politics."
"The president should come out of the war room" and talk about the economy, he said, underlining Democratic concerns that the Iraq issue has obscured the bread-and-butter, kitchen-table matters that favor Democrats in elections.
Iraq could be dealt with later, he said, and multilaterally as in 1991, when allies shouldered about $54 billion of $61 billion in war costs.
"What are we doing now to try to get help from other countries?" Byrd asked. "We're doing nothing."
What is more, he said, the Bush administration's apparent willingness to act unilaterally and preemptively is making America "look like the bully of the town" to other countries.
Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., one of three congressmen who recently visited Iraq, said that the president failed to make his case for imminent military action against Iraq or a unilateral, preemptive strike, which "set back 200 years of democracy in this country."
The United States, he said, must work multilaterally and exhaust every diplomatic option before resorting to force to disarm Saddam. And although the president has said Iraq poses an imminent threat to security, "there appears to be no immediate danger."
Bush, in his speech in Cincinnati, linked the Iraqi regime to terrorism, saying it had trained al Qaida operatives in the use of explosives and in chemical and biological weapons technology.
It was additional proof of Iraq's links to international terrorism, he said, and increased the threat that terrorists could obtain weapons of mass destruction to use against the United States and others.
But Thompson, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a decorated combat veteran shrugged off the accusation.
"We haven't seen any proof that any of this has happened," he said in an interview with CNN. "There has been nothing in the committee hearing briefings that substantiates this."
With Thompson in Iraq were Reps. David Bonier, D-Mich., and Jim McDermott, D-Wash., who both voted against military force in 1991 to oust Iraqi occupation troops from Kuwait following Saddam's invasion of the country the year before.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., took the opposite tack. Also speaking on CNN he said the president had made the case for the need for action against Iraq -- including military force -- and only a very strong international inspection regime leading to disarmament could save Saddam from facing the might of the United States and its allies.
The proposed resolution in Congress authorizing that force, he added, will be "overwhelmingly passed."
Although Bush has gotten support for his Iraq plans from many Democrats, last week former Vice President Al Gore made a major across-the-board attack on Bush's war plans, claiming that the plight of the U.S. economy was far more urgent a danger than Saddam.
Other Democrats oppose the president's "go it alone," pre-emptive strike policies. Sen. John Edwards, D.-NC., who is often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies "American leadership is about more than our ability to dominate others."
According to Edwards: "It is about convincing others that our power serves their interests, as well as our own. We inspire others to stand with us when we show we're willing to stand with them, to listen to them, to take their views and contributions in account," he said.
