Today In History: Bush Forecasts Iraqi Freedom; Clinton Vetoes Abortion Bill

April 10, 2017, is the 100th day of the year, with 265 days remaining. The moon is in a waxing gibbous phase, with illumination at 100 percent.

Bush to Iraq citizens: “Your nation will soon be free”

In a 2003 address with Britain’s then-Prime Minister Tony Blair to Iraqi citizens, President George W. Bush began with a statement on the effects of Saddam Hussein’s longstanding reign.

“At this moment, the regime of Saddam Hussein is being removed from power, and a long era of fear and cruelty is ending,” Bush explained following a brief introduction of himself to the Iraqi people. “American and coalition forces are now operating inside Baghdad, and we will not stop util Saddam’s corrupt gang is gone. The government of Iraq and the future of your country will soon belong to you.”

America’s invasion of Iraq had begun in March of this same year, and by April, United States-led forces occupied ample territory in Iraq. The president put forth a set of goals during this invasion, calling them “clear and limited.”

These goals comprised:

• Ending a “brutal regime, whose aggression and weapons of mass destruction [made] it a unique threat to the world”
• Respecting Iraq’s “great religious traditions, whose principles of equality and compassion are essential” to the country’s future
• Building a peaceful and representative government that “protects the rights of all citizens” — and then, United States-led forces would leave

“Iraq will go forward as a unified, independent and sovereign nation that has regained a respected place in the world.”

“You deserve to live as free people,” he emphasized in conclusion. “And I assure every citizen of Iraq: Your nation will soon be free.”

Saddam Hussein was ultimately captured at the end of 2003 during Operation Red Dawn, having been found hiding in a hole in the ground near a farmhouse in Ad-Dawr, near Tikrit.

Clinton vetoes bill on

In 1996, President Bill Clinton vetoed a bill that would have outlawed a technique used to end pregnancies in their late stages, something opponents at the time were referring to as “partial-birth” abortion. The exception to this lay in the decision that such a procedure was essential to saving the mother’s life.

The House of Representatives voted to override Clinton’s veto, but the Senate fell nine votes short of doing so. Clinton described the procedure as a “potentially life-saving [and] certainly health-saving” measure for a “small, but extremely vulnerable, group of women and families in this country — just a few hundred a year.”

The president asserted that this decision had nothing to do with “the pro-choice, pro-life debate.” Congress cleared Clinton’s veto of the legislation in a private ceremony at the Oval Office, and Clinton met with women who’d undergone the procedure in question.

These women, according to White House officials at the time, underwent the procedure per the advice of their doctors due to their own health being in danger. The president requested changes to permit exemptions “to preserve the life of the woman or avert serious health consequences to the woman,” this via a letter to congressional leaders.

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Photo credit: Paul Morse via White House