Prepare for War With Iraq, Bush to Tell America

President Bush will tell the nation to prepare for war in next week’s State of the Union address, the White House said Friday, as the State Department alerted U.S. citizens overseas to be ready to evacuate on short notice.

While other U.N. Security Council members are seeking ways to delay or avert a military conflict, the president will say in his address Tuesday that the U.S. is getting ready for an invasion, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett said Friday. But the president won’t go so far as to declare war on Iraq, Bartlett said.

“This is an opportunity for him to talk directly to the public about the prospect of war, to talk about why the world came together in the first place requiring the disarmament of this regime,” he said. “This is not a declaration speech. This is not a speech where he will be declaring war.”

But signaling the serious consequences of a potential military action, the State Department told its embassies around the world Friday to alert U.S. citizens living and traveling abroad to be prepared for possible evacuation.

The warning was not sparked by any specific threat, and it was not a “worldwide caution” of the sort the State Department issued in November advising U.S. citizens abroad to be vigilant about the threat of terrorism. Rather, it was a general reminder of the need for preparedness at a time of “heightened tensions in the world,” a State Department official said.

The alert was being cabled Friday to every U.S. embassy and consulate, more than 200 posts in all, instructing U.S. citizens to keep their passports updated and to be ready to leave quickly if necessary.

About 4 million U.S. citizens live overseas, and thousands more are traveling outside the country on any given day, the State Department said. After the Sept. 11 attacks, expatriate Americans became more aware that they could be potential targets for terrorism.

In the case of a war on Iraq, there is increased concern about possible retaliation against Americans. “If you’re talking, as we are, about possible military action, it usually results in drawdowns or evacuations at a number of embassies around the world,” a State Department official said.

At the United Nations, key Security Council members -- France, China, Russia, Germany, Mexico and now even staunch U.S. ally Britain -- insisted that inspectors deserve more time for their disarmament work and that war must wait.

In talks Thursday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw deliberated the option of giving arms monitors extra time in exchange for assurances from allies that inspections will not drag on indefinitely, according to U.S. and British officials. No formal conclusions were reached.

An isolated U.S. is exploring its options: Give peace a chance, or go it alone? White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said Friday that if Bush concludes that “we have reached the point of last resort” and that force is needed to disarm Iraq, the president would prefer “to have all of the world with the United States.”

In the face of growing resistance in the Security Council, “that may not be achievable,” Fleischer said. “But will that stop the president and the coalition from doing what it believes is necessary to protect the world? No, it will not.”

In Baghdad on Friday, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s son Uday warned that if Iraq is attacked, the U.S. will suffer calamities that would make Sept. 11 look like a “picnic.”

“It is better for them [the Americans] to keep themselves away from us,” he was quoted as saying Thursday night by Al Shabab Television, which he owns. “Because if they come, Sept. 11 -- which they are crying over and see as a big thing -- will be a real picnic for them, God willing.”

The younger Hussein said that Washington would fail in ousting his father and that Americans could gain more from Iraq through peaceful relations. “They can get much more from Iraq by dialogue without resorting to the logic of force and war,” he said.

A crucial factor in the decision about when and if to go to war comes Monday, when the chief U.N. arms monitors deliver a 60-day assessment of the inspectors’ progress.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief nuclear watchdog, said his inspectors have received “reasonably good cooperation” from Iraq. But he said his counterpart overseeing chemical, biological and missile program inspections will report that his monitors feel that they have received considerably less than they need.

But ElBaradei said, “We will both be pleading for more time.”

Under U.S. pressure to make Iraqi scientists available, Baghdad said Friday that the United Nations had asked to interview three more experts this weekend. Although a U.N. spokesman had no comment, Iraq’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the U.N. had requested interviews with three scientists Saturday and that Iraqi authorities had encouraged them to go.

The inspectors have been empowered to take scientists and their relatives away from the eyes of Iraqi minders -- even out of the country -- for confidential interviews. So far, the inspectors have formally interviewed four Iraqi weapons experts, and all of them insisted on having Iraqi witnesses present, claiming they didn’t want their words misused.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, citing intelligence reports, said Thursday that the real reason was that scientists and their families have been threatened with death if they cooperate with inspectors.

Former inspector Timothy McCarthy warned that even if the scientists agree to leave the country, the move might be a red herring. “It sounds to me like a typical Iraqi trap,” he said. “There’s going to be a hugely publicized trip of a scientist out of the country, and then he’ll say there’s nothing there.”

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Times staff writers Sonni Efron and Jim Gerstenzang in Washington contributed to this report.