Tierney Remains ‘Skeptical’ About Iraq
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2002–Responding to President Bush’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly Thursday, Rep. John Tierney, D-Salem, agreed that the president should try to work with the United Nations on Iraq.
“It appears that at least the president is refocusing to look at international issues” through the United Nations, Tierney said in an interview Thursday.
Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John Kerry, D-Mass., joined Tierney in his assessment of Bush’s speech, which was delivered as the Bush administration considers an invasion of Iraq.
“I commend President Bush for expressing America’s willingness to work with the United Nations,” Kennedy said in a press release Thursday. “The world community has a clear responsibility to do all it can to prevent Iraq from threatening other nations with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.”
At a press conference Thursday, Kerry expressed his agreement with Bush’s willingness to work with the United Nations.
“It’s important to support the president and it’s important to support the approach to the United Nations and it’s important to support the definition of (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein as a problem. But I think it would be a mistake for us to declare … unilateral steps we will take, no matter what the United Nations does.”
In an interview Wednesday, Tierney had said he was “skeptical” about a U.S. invasion of Iraq because he thought the president still needed to make a stronger case to Tierney and his fellow lawmakers. Bush’s speech the following day did not change his mind, Tierney said Thursday.
In the Wednesday interview, Tierney said that he has received several hundred letters, e-mails and phone calls from his North Shore constituents, and even has had people stopping him on the street opposing an invasion of Iraq. He said he had heard from only three or four constituents who support the president. “People are dealing with the information that they have now,” he said, adding that as more information is revealed, they will begin to reexamine the issue.
As for Tierney’s fellow lawmakers, the president has not asked them to decide on an invasion of Iraq, Tierney said, adding that Bush has not produced enough evidence to convince him of the need for an immediate invasion: “[Bush] hasn’t met the threshold.”
Questions still must be answered for him to make the decision on invading Iraq, Tierney said, adding that Bush has to lay the groundwork for a possible invasion.
“Why we should change a long, long history of not taking preemptive actions?” Tierney asked. “[Bush] has to engage the international community, he has to engage Congress, he has to make his case to the American people. Has he been clear to the American people of the sacrifice from them – how many troops will be committed? Has he described the …nature of the invasion – who will replace Saddam Hussein, will the U.S. be involved in nation-building?”
Tierney, a member of the Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations, wrote a letter Tuesday to Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., chairman of the subcommittee, requesting that the panel “hold a hearing on the potentially wide-ranging dangers that U.S. troops and our regional allies could encounter if the United States decided to pursue an invasion of Iraq.”
Saddam Hussein does pose a danger, Tierney said Wednesday. But the congressman questioned whether the danger was immediate: “Is he dangerous in the context of the area of Iraq? We are still gathering evidence on whether or not he has the capacity to endanger imminently the U.S.”
“I think we’ve finally convinced the president that this is not the right thing to do without first making his case,” Tierney said.
Published in The Salem News, in Massachusetts.
