The United States should take immediate action to remove Iraqi president Saddam Hussein from power, said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) on Monday. He described Hussein as a “sworn enemy of the United States” in a lecture delivered in Gaston Hall sponsored by the Lecture Fund.
Lieberman said that it is necessary for the United States to implement the Iraqi Liberation Act, passed by Congress in 1998. The act stipulates that the United States will provide support to Iraqi opposition forces.
“We have to stop paying lip service to that policy and start paying for it,” he said.
Lieberman also proposed that the United States fight against the economic, social and political conditions which terrorists exploit. Additionally, he expressed his support for the current military campaign in Afghanistan.
Lieberman said that the United States should promote human rights and free trade in Middle Eastern nations, while seeking to direct aid towards education and health services.
“If we do not help Islamic nations affirmatively choose the path of progress and peaceful coexistence … the conditions that enable yesterday’s terrorists to kill 3,000 Americans will spawn many more and even worse threats,” Lieberman said.
He said that leaders of Central Asian nations would welcome an increased American presence in the region. Lieberman just returned to the United states last week after leading a Senate delegation to Turkey, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Oman.
Lieberman said he was optimistic about U.S. relations with Pakistan. He said that delegation members had encouraged Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf to take similiar military action against Al Qaeda within Pakistan’s own borders.
“Last week, our Senate delegation had an excellent meeting with President Musharraf in which we thanked him for Pakistan’s great support of our military operations in Afghanistan and urged him to do the same inside Pakistan,” he said.
Lieberman ended his lecture by praising Islam as “a great religion” and said that the United States should take actions “[to support] freedom, tolerance, democracy and prosperity throughout the Muslim world.”
