Al-Ahram Weekly | Special | The war no one wants via Kesher Talk

[...]So, once you achieve your goals in Iraq and force Saddam Hussein out, will you leave?


Of course we will leave. We want to do what is necessary. If conflict comes -- and we hope conflict won't come, we still hope for peace, a peaceful resolution. But if conflict comes, and we have to go into Iraq, it is our goal, our simple goal, to find a solution quickly. We want to help Iraqis put in place a government in Iraq that would be responsible to the needs of all the people of Iraq, that will keep the country together, and will dedicate itself to the elimination of WMDs, to proper standards of human rights, and we will help fix all the systems that are now broken, with respect to health care, education. We want to see institutions with responsible leaders, and then, we want to go. We have lots of demands on the United States.


What do you ask from Egypt?


We ask, as always, from Egypt their support and their friendship. President Mubarak is a strong leader; he is a leader whose wisdom we value, and we stay in close touch with [him]. President Mubarak is also a leader of his own nation, who has to be responsible to the needs of his own nation, and to the will of his people. These are difficult times, and we will find ways through these difficult times. There is also a time when there is [a] need for all of us to be respectful of each other's religion. This is the time when we see hatred coming forward. Those of us in positions of leadership should speak against that hatred, whether it is hatred manifested by anti-Semitism, or hatred manifested by anti-Muslim comments or activities.


We can leave this room right now, and I can take you, within five minutes, to a mosque, a temple, a synagogue, a Catholic Church, an Orthodox Church. We know what diversity is; we know what the strength of all the religions of the world are when they are harnessed together in peace, in a manner which we have done here in the United States.


Are you going to respond in kind if Iraq uses WMDs?


We never discuss that. Why don't you worry about Iraq using WMDs, rather than, 'Would you respond if Iraq uses WMDs?' Will you scream bloody murder if Iraq uses these terrible weapons that [it] says it does not have? How could they use them if they don't have them? Now, if they use them, the United States has no intentions of doing anything that would hurt the people of Iraq. But we will do what is necessary to defend ourselves. But I hope before everybody asks what the United States would do, somebody would say: 'My God. They did have them. They were lying.' [...]