Bush on Iraq: ‘I’ve Had It’ : Despite Harsh Rhetoric, He Says U.S. Is No Closer to War

President Bush today declared that “I have had it” with brutal treatment of Americans in Iraq and charged that U.S. diplomats in the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait “are being starved.”

“What am I going to do about it?” he said to reporters during a visit to Alexandria, Va. “Let’s just wait and see. I have had it with that kind of treatment of Americans.”

Although he and other White House officials later insisted that the Administration has not given up on a diplomatic solution, the President’s words reinforce the strong implication that he is ready to face a decision on taking action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the near term.

Back at the White House, when asked if the nation is moving closer to war, Bush said, “I don’t think so,” adding that he still has hopes for a peaceful solution.

But, Bush said, “You don’t use pretext when you have force deployed. You just do what’s right.”

The President, under pressure from Congress to allow more time for economic sanctions against Iraq to work, said the U.N.-led embargo has not been as effective as he had hoped.

Iraq’s ambassador to the United States, responding to the heating up of the rhetoric, called today for a negotiated settlement to the gulf crisis and said Baghdad wants to avoid bloodshed in the region.

Envoy Mohammed Mashat said at a capital news conference: “We seek to avoid bloodshed. We’d like to establish good relations with the United States.”

Mashat also said he hopes U.S. leaders “will listen to the voices of reason and will not heed those who are calling for a quick and devastating military strike.”

He said the tough rhetoric of Bush and Secretary of State James A. Baker III had heightened the possibility of war.

“Certainly we are more concerned,” Mashat said. “We are taking precautionary measures to defend our country.”

Should war break out, the ambassador said, “This is going to be a bloody conflict.”

While escalating the Administration’s anti-Iraq rhetoric, Bush said the harsh comments of the last few days from senior officials, notably Baker, should not be interpreted as a sign he has decided force is the only way to resolve the gulf crisis.

He seemed eager to elaborate on his feelings, taking questions from reporters as he arrived for a campaign stop in suburban Virginia for Republican Rep. Stan. Parris, and again as his helicopter landed back on the White House grounds.

“The embassy is being starved,” Bush said of the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, where a handful of staff members are confined. “The people out there are not being resupplied. The American flag is flying over the Kuwait embassy and our people inside are being starved by a brutal dictator.”

He referred to reports from other foreign hostages who had been held with Americans in Kuwait describing grim conditions. “That worries me,” the President said.

Bush said he was deeply offended by the suggestion that his heightened rhetoric against Hussein was politically motivated to help Republicans in next Tuesday’s elections.

“I don’t think that even the most cynical would ever suggest that a President would play politics with the lives of American kids halfway around the world,” he said, calling such suggestions “the ultimate of cynicism and indecency.”

Elsewhere today, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and a British military commander warned that war against Iraq might be imminent.

Mubarak said the gulf crisis has become so dangerous it “could explode at any time.” And he urged “our brothers in Iraq” to realize the danger their Aug. 2 invasion of oil-rich Kuwait has caused.

The commander of British forces in the gulf warned that an attack against Iraq is increasingly likely. Air Chief Marshal Sir Paddy Hine said a joint team culled from the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and Army is developing plans for military strikes.

“Saddam Hussein seems reluctant at the moment to accept the judgment of world opinion,” he said. “It is looking increasingly unlikely that Saddam Hussein will withdraw unconditionally from Kuwait.”