Carter Says U.S. Should Try To Avoid Bombing Iraq

Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that Iraq’s people have seen enough misery under Saddam Hussein without the United States adding to it with a bombing attack.

“I just hope we can avoid a policy of the United States that would bring more suffering and devastation on the people of Iraq. They have already suffered under a dictator,” Carter said.

The former president was at Duke University to lead a two-day conference on “Media and Development in Ethiopia.”

The United States is threatening air strikes to push Iraq into granting United Nations inspectors complete access to potential weapons sites.

The United Nations has refused to lift sanctions imposed on Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990 until the inspectors certify that Iraq has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction.

Carter said even limited air strikes to Iraqi factories suspected of making biological weapons could kill civilians.