Dean: I Would Have Toppled Saddam Using Different Tactics

Former Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean said Friday that if he were president, Saddam Hussein would have relinquished power by now without the U.S. firing a shot.

Asked if Saddam would be in power today if he were in the Oval Office, Dean told WRKO Boston talk radio host Howie Carr, "Probably not."

CARR: He wouldn't?

DEAN: No

CARR: Well, how would he have been removed?

DEAN: Because we - I would have treated the whole thing totally differently than President Bush would have. We would have put the squeeze on him, as the president did, to continue the no-fly zones.

And then instead of ordering the United Nations - telling the United Nations that we were going to go in whether they like it or not, we would have worked ...

CARR: We had no-fly zones for 12-years - he was still in power.

DEAN: Well, but you know, that was pretty successful, those no-fly zones. He was not able to mount any kind of dangerous attack to anybody. [End of Excerpt]

While Dean did not elaborate on his nonviolent strategy to remove Saddam, moments later he told Carr that Bush's father should have marched on Baghdad and taken out the Iraqi dictator after the first Gulf War.

DEAN: I would not have begrudged George Bush's father from going all the way to Baghdad and getting rid of Saddam. We had every right to do that. We were at war with him, he had attacked our ally, he had overrun them, he was setting oil wells on fire.

And then, we encouraged the Shiite rebellion and we stood by and didn't lift a finger while they stood up against Saddam and then they got mowed down. Now that was the time to go into Iraq. [End of Excerpt.]

Editor's note:
Get NewsMax’s special report on Howard Dean – Click here now

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
2004 Elections