Saddam Says U.S. Attack Would Be 'Suicide'

Saddam Says U.S. Attack Would Be 'Suicide'

NewsMax.com Wires
Saturday, Jan. 18, 2003

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Dictator Saddam Hussein on Friday urged his subjects to fight the United States and vowed that an attack on Baghdad would be "suicide."

He compared President Bush to the Mongol who destroyed Baghdad in 1258. He told Bush to "keep your evil away from the mother of civilization."

"The whole nation will rise in defense of its right to live," Saddam said. "Their arrows will go astray or backfire, God willing."

In Washington, the White House said the chemical warheads found in Iraq were "troubling and serious."

Spokesman Ari Fleischer stopped short of calling the discovery a breach of a U.N. resolution. The United States has already found Baghdad in violation of U.N. rules, he said.

In a televised speech to mark the 12th anniversary of the 1991 U.S.-led Persian Gulf War that ended with the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi invaders, Saddam said his country had mobilized to confront any U.S.-British attack.

Saddam referred to Bush several times in his 30-minute speech, without naming him, as the 13th-century Mongol leader Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan. But Saddam said that Baghdad today was different than when Hulagu invaded.

"The Hulagu army of this century came to confront Baghdad after Baghdad was born again ... and recovered its leading role after nearly 700 years," he told the Iraqis. The new Hulagu will not be able to enter Baghdad and great Iraq or "defeat the will of your brothers in Palestine."

"Hulagu of this age is attacking your mother, the Iraqi civilization," he said. "Tell him in a loud, clear voice: Stop your evil against the mother of civilizations, the primary museum, landmark and cradle of civilizations, the cradle of messengers and prophets."

Saddam said that in 1991 Iraq defeated a concentration of evil from 30 countries, and today "we have mobilized our abilities, including those of the army, people and leadership."

He said Jews had played a wicked role against Baghdad in the past and that Zionists in Washington were still conspiring against Baghdad.

"Repeated references to Baghdad, rather than Iraq, appeared to be a sign that Saddam plans to rally his troops around the capital for a decisive battle aimed at inflicting as many casualties as possible on U.S. forces, if Bush decides on a military attack to force Iraqi disarmament," Fox News reported.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Middle East
Saddam Hussein/Iraq
Editor's note:
Saddam Hussein’s race to make a nuclear bomb