IRVINE, CA--Commenting in an Op-Ed on the U.N. Security Council's vote to prevent America's removal of Saddam Hussein, the chairman of the board of the Ayn Rand Institute said, "Any dictatorship that has the capability, and has demonstrated the willingness, to attack America's interests, is a threat that deserves to be eliminated."
      Peter Schwartz, also a senior writer of the Institute, said, "The only justification for war is a moral one--and the only nation entitled to invoke it is one that upholds freedom. Saddam Hussein is an enemy, potential or actual, of every free country in the world. The outlaw-state of Iraq has no right to its 'territorial integrity'--any more than did the Taliban in Afghanistan or the Nazis in Germany."
      Mr. Schwartz urged President Bush to follow Israel's example: "Twenty-one years ago, Israel sent 16 warplanes to bomb and destroy a nuclear facility in Iraq that was soon to be activated. Israel did so with full confidence in the morality of its actions. It sought no U.N. resolutions, it issued no warnings about serious consequences--and it was not deterred by the prospect of worldwide disapproval."

Ayn Rand Institute senior writer Peter Schwartz is available for interviews on this topic.