Had ‘No Choice’ Other Than War, Bush Says : Military: Raids were to knock out Iraq’s nuclear arms potential and chemical arsenal, the President declares.

WASHINGTON —  President Bush, asserting that the United States and its allies had “no choice” other than war, said Wednesday night the massive bombing raids on Iraq were intended to knock out Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons potential and to destroy his chemical weapons arsenal.

As wave after wave of bombers and fighters began a massive 28-nation military operation to free Kuwait from more than five months of Iraqi occupation, Bush declared: “Saddam Hussein’s forces will leave Kuwait. The legitimate government of Kuwait will be restored to its rightful place and Kuwait will once again be free.”

“We will not fail,” he said.

Bush emphasized that the aerial assault was designed to reduce U.S. and allied casualties to the lowest possible levels and to achieve military success in the shortest possible time.

“Our operations are designed to best protect the lives of all the coalition forces by targeting Saddam’s vast military arsenal,” the President said, adding that initial reports from Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the senior U.S. military commander in Saudi Arabia, indicated that “our operations are proceeding according to plan.”

Showing little emotion and none of the fidgeting he has displayed in recent public appearances as the Persian Gulf crisis grew ever tenser, Bush told the nation in a broadcast speech from the Oval Office:

“Five months ago, Saddam Hussein started this cruel war against Kuwait. Tonight, the battle has been joined.”

“As I report to you, air attacks are under way against military targets in Iraq,” he declared, barely two hours after the air raids began.

He said that ground forces had not been engaged. Under military plans, they are unlikely to be sent into battle against the 540,000 Iraqi troops in Kuwait and southern Iraq until key targets in Iraq and Kuwait have been destroyed.

Hussein has threatened repeatedly to use his chemical weapons against the U.S.-led forces arrayed against him in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Persian Gulf region, and to launch missile attacks on Israel.

While it is not clear how much progress Iraq has made toward building a nuclear weapons arsenal, some sources said Hussein was nearing, or already had, the capability of exploding a crude nuclear device.

“We are determined to knock out Saddam Hussein’s nuclear bomb potential,” Bush said. “We will also destroy his chemical weapons facilities. Much of Saddam’s artillery and tanks will be destroyed.”

By targeting the weapons sites in the initial strike, Bush sought to guarantee that, if the raids are successful, Hussein’s ability to use nuclear and chemical weapons to threaten Israel and other Middle East states would be stilled even if an early truce is achieved.

Bush’s speech had been prepared over several weeks, in anticipation of the moment that arrived Wednesday night. With much of the nation riveted by the initial, live broadcast reports of the aerial attack, the address allowed him to present to a tremendous audience a terse, point-by-point explanation for the military action and a brief listing of its objectives.

After all efforts at diplomacy failed, he said, “the 28 countries with forces in the gulf area have exhausted all reasonable efforts to reach a peaceful resolution, have no choice but to drive Saddam from Kuwait by force.”

To those who had urged him to wait longer for the economic embargo to strangle Iraq, Bush said the sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council after the invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2 “showed no signs of accomplishing their objective.”

The military action, he said, “follows months of constant and virtually endless diplomatic activity on the part of the United Nations, the United States and many, many other countries.”

“While the world waited, Saddam Hussein systematically raped, pillaged and plundered a tiny nation, no threat to his own. He subjected the people of Kuwait to unspeakable atrocities, and among those maimed and murdered--innocent children,” Bush said.

“While the world waited, Saddam sought to add to the chemical weapons arsenal he now possesses an infinitely more dangerous weapon of mass destruction, a nuclear weapon,” the President added.

The President also said that while others “talked peace and withdrawal,” Hussein “dug in and moved massive forces into Kuwait.”

The stalling, Bush said, wreaked new damage on the “fragile economies” of the Third World, already staggering under oil prices sent spiraling by the first shock of the gulf crisis, on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe, and on the economy of the United States.

“The United States, together with the United Nations, exhausted every means at our disposal to bring this crisis to a peaceful end,” Bush said, while Hussein sought to weaken the forces arrayed against him.

“While the world waited, Saddam Hussein met every overture of peace with open contempt,” Bush said. “While the world prayed for peace, Saddam prepared for war.”

The President said he had instructed the military commanders of Operation Desert Storm, the code name of the operation, “to take every necessary step to prevail as quickly as possible and with the greatest degree of protection possible for American and allied servicemen and women.”

Pledging as he has in the past that the mission “will not be another Vietnam,” Bush said the troops will have “the best possible support” and “will not be asked to fight with one hand tied behind their back.”

“I’m hopeful that this fighting will not go on for long and that casualties will be held to an absolute minimum” he said.

The President emphasized that America’s goal is not “the conquest of Iraq--it is the liberation of Kuwait.”

“It is my hope that somehow the Iraqi people can even now convince their dictator that he must lay down his arms, leave Kuwait, and let Iraq itself rejoin the family of peace-loving nations,” he said.

But, Bush said, “The terrible crimes and tortures committed by Saddam’s henchmen against the innocent people of Kuwait are an affront to mankind and a challenge to the freedom of all.”