Reuters. 17 January 2002. Saddam Says Iraq Ready for Any New U.S. Attack.
BAGHDAD -- On the 11th anniversary of the Gulf War, President Saddam Hussein said on Thursday his country was prepared for and would foil any fresh U.S. military attack against Iraq as part of a war against terrorism. In a televised speech to the nation, Saddam said experience Iraq had gained from the Gulf War -- in which a U.S.-led coalition drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait and bombed Iraq -- would enable it to repulse any new military campaign. "After the course of the aggression 11 years ago, backed up by a continuous aggression till this day, our people will not be taken by surprise," Saddam said. He said Iraqis "now have more confidence in themselves and more conviction in their march than they had in the year 1991." "Will the performance of one who has sat an examination and passed it be higher and better, or lower and lesser?" Saddam asked. But he prayed that God would spare Iraq military confrontation with America. "We pray to Allah, glorified be His Name, to keep our people and our nation away from the evil of the evildoers and their wicked intentions." Thousands of Iraqis, including them some who have volunteered to fight with Palestinians in their uprising against Israeli occupation, shouted curses against the United States during a march in Baghdad. "Down, down with America... Down, down with Bush," chanted the demonstrators, some of whom were carrying guns. They burned an effigy of President Bush and the American and Israeli flags. Iraq says nearly seven million Iraqis have volunteered to fight with Palestinians in their confrontation with Israeli troops. Thursday editions of Baghdad newspapers carried a letter from Saddam's younger son Qusay in which he pledged that Iraq's elite Republican Guards, whom he supervises, would "repulse any aggression against our dear country." "We will resist their aggression and destroy all their criminal scheming against us," the ruling Baath party newspaper said in a front-page editorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
