Richard Cheney: Saddam Hussein is a danger to world peace

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox

Get our free View from Westminster email

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

Saddam Hussein has perfected the game of cheat and retreat and is very skilled in the art of denial and deception. A return of inspectors would provide no assurance whatsoever of his compliance with UN resolutions. On the contrary, there is a great danger that it would provide false comfort that Saddam was somehow "back in his box".

Meanwhile, he would continue to plot. Nothing in the last dozen years has stopped him – not his agreements; not the discoveries of the inspectors; not the revelations by defectors; not criticism or ostracism by the international community; and not four days of bombing by the United States in 1998. What he wants is time and more time to husband his resources, to invest in his ongoing chemical and biological weapons programmes and to gain possession of nuclear arms.

Should all his ambitions be realised, the implications would be enormous for the Middle East, for the United States, and for the peace of the world. The whole range of weapons of mass destruction then would rest in the hands of a dictator who has already shown his willingness to use such weapons, and has done so, both in his war with Iran and against his own people.

Armed with an arsenal of these weapons of terror, and seated atop 10 per cent of the world's oil reserves, Saddam Hussein could then be expected to seek domination of the entire Middle East region, directly threaten America's friends throughout the region, and subject the United States – or any other nation – to nuclear blackmail.

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us. And there is no doubt that his aggressive regional ambitions will lead him into future confrontations with his neighbours - confrontations that will involve both the weapons he has today, and the ones he will continue to develop.