Leahy-Feingold: Demand Congress Be Consulted on Iraq By Barry Schweid Associated Press | Boston Globe
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/08.31A.leahy.feingold.htm
Thursday, 29 August, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) President Bush
should ask Congress for authorization before launching an attack against Iraq,
two Democrats said Thursday as the administration struggled in its push for
international backing.
''The administration should not
expect to commit American troops to war with a wink and a nod to Congress,''
said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
''There should be a full debate and a vote. That is what the Constitution
prescribes, and that is what the American people expect.''
And Sen. Russell Feingold,
D-Wis., said nothing short of formal approval would be acceptable.
''The Constitution says that
Congress has the sole power to declare war,'' Feingold said in an interview.
Not doing so, he said, ''is an affront to Congress and to the American
people.''
The Bush administration takes the
position it needs nothing beyond the consent Congress gave for the 1990- 1991
war on Iraq to liberate Kuwait. But Bush's advisers have concluded that it
would be prudent to seek some sort of expression of support from lawmakers if
the president decides on military action.
On the international front,
French President Jacques Chirac called the possibility of unilateral U.S.
military action to depose President Saddam Hussein ''worrying.''
Chirac said any military action
must be initiated by the U.N. Security Council.
China on Wednesday joined
Germany, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Turkey in urging restraint. In Japan,
seeking international support, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said
he could not provide a ''laundry list'' of countries that back the United
States.
In Washington, Secretary of State
Colin Powell called five foreign ministers, including Jack Straw of Britain,
Anna Palacio of Spain and Joschka Fischer on Germany.
Powell's message was that
''Iraq's defiance of the Security Council and development of weapons of mass
destruction constitutes a danger that we have to deal with,'' State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Intense debate also is under way
within the administration on whether to seek a U.N. Security Council vote
declaring that Saddam must readmit weapons inspectors, although Boucher said he
knew of no decision to push for a new resolution.
White House officials are
wrestling with early drafts of Bush's mid-September address to the U.N. General
Assembly. Some are arguing the president to make a forceful case for strong
action against Saddam, fearing that he is losing the public-relations battle
and is allowing Vice President Dick Cheney to be the administration's most
visible spokesman on Iraq.
Others caution that Bush must
temper his rhetoric until he is prepared for military action.
White House spokesman Scott
McClellan on Wednesday said the administration looked forward to any
congressional hearings.
That would be ''part of a healthy
discussion about how we move forward on Iraq,'' McClellan said.
Sentiment on Capitol Hill is mixed.
Sen. John Warner of Virginia, senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services
Committee, said he wanted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard
Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to testify next month on how
prepared U.S. forces are for a war against Iraq.
Warner, in a letter to committee
chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said ''Congress, as a co-equal branch of
government, is, in my opinion, not going to sit on the sidelines.''
In a statement Wednesday, Levin
said he was considering holding hearings and would make a decision after
Congress' summer recess ends next week.
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria
Clarke said Rumsfeld expected to be asked to testify and was prepared to
comply.
Meanwhile, Turkey, a longtime
U.S. ally, expressed grave doubts about an American attack on Iraq. It is
proposing tighter trade sanctions, fearing that a Kurdish state could emerge if
Bush used force.
This puts Turkey in the skeptical
column along with such traditional U.S. friends as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and
underscores how difficult it could be for Bush if he decided to invade or bomb
Iraq to get rid of President Saddam Hussein.
Turkey's views were conveyed in
two days of talks in Washington between Ugur Ziyal, undersecretary for foreign
affairs, and high-level Bush administration officials. Ziyal made his views
public on Wednesday.
''Think through the
consequences,'' Ziyal advised.
Turkey's reservations about an
attack could complicate any U.S. military planning. The country serves as the
base for U.S. and British surveillance flights over Iraq and supported the war
on Iraq in 1990-91 to liberate Kuwait.
(In accordance with Title 17
U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who
have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for
research and educational purposes.)