(Host) Senator Patrick Leahy says he’s concerned that the United States will be subjected to a brutal wave of terrorist attacks if this country takes military action against Iraq without the support the United Nations Security Council.
Leahy says President Bush didn’t make a convincing case for U.S. action during his press conference on Thursday night. Leahy says it’s wrong for the United States to go to war against Iraq without the support of the United Nations:
(Leahy) “If we appear to be going in unilaterally or nearly unilaterally, say just with Great Britain – which had been a colonial power in the region before – and other countries only in name, we run the risk of this appearing to be a war of the United States against Islam. And that I can tell you, we will reap the whirlwind of that for decades to come.”
(Host) Leahy says he believes the United States faces far greater security threats from the government of North Korea.
(Leahy) “I’m far more concerned about North Korea which seems to be almost ignored even as they start to ramp up, to have nuclear weapons and delivery systems which they are then going to be able to export any where that they want in the world.”
(Host) Leahy says international efforts to increase the number of weapons inspectors in Iraq may be the best way to contain the situation in Iraq at this time.