Tierney to Vote ‘No’ on Iraq Resolution
WASHINGTON, Oct. 09, 2002–Rep. John Tierney (D-Salem) said he will vote against the resolution to use military force in Iraq when the House of Representatives votes on the measure this week. Meanwhile Sen. John F. Kerry, who had not previously announced his position, said yesterday that he would vote for the resolution.
Congress this week is debating a resolution that would give broad power to the President to use “necessary and appropriate” military force against Iraq even without backing from the United Nations.
Tierney said Saddam Hussein does not present an immediate threat to United States security. He suggested the U.S. and U.N. work diplomatically to enforce inspections and destroy weapons of mass destruction.
“The administration says that Hussein is bad and no one disagrees. Nor do we disagree with the notion that the U.N. resolutions must be enforced by U.N. Security Council action. The administration, though, asserts that the U.S. must act peremptorily and right now because Iraq is an imminent threat. But the truth be told it has not met the burden of truth to that claim,” Tierney said in a speech on the House floor Wednesday.
Rather than implementing a measured, international inspection program Tierney said the Administration is pushing a hasty and costly resolution that will sacrifice the U.S. military and economy.
“What about the sacrifices in terms of our economy. What will people be asked to forgo in terms of education and health care and prescription drugs,” Tierney said.
Tierney also cited declassified CIA reports that said Iraq would only be likely to use biological or chemical weapons if it was provoked by United States military intervention.
In a statement on the Senate floor Kerry said he was “voting to give this authority to the President for one reason and one reason only: to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction if we cannot accomplish that objective through new though weapons inspections.”
Kerry had previously criticized Bush for rushing into a military campaign against Iraq without the consent of the American public, but said his opinion changed after the Bush Administration outlined a comprehensive case against Saddam Hussein to Congress and the American public.
“In the clearest presentation to date the President [in a speech on Monday] laid out a strong, comprehensive and compelling argument why Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs are a threat to the United States and the international community,” Kerry said.
Kerry said that he is voting for the resolution because he believes that Hussein’s “deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction…is a real and grave threat to our security and that of our allies in the Persian Golf region.”
But he also emphasized that Bush should use military force only as a last resort. “I will support a multilateral effort to disarm Iraq by force, if we have exhausted all other options. But I cannot and will not support a unilateral, U.S. war against Iraq unless the threat is imminent and no multilateral effort is possible,” Kerry said.
“By standing with the President, Congress will demonstrate that our nation is united in its determination to take away Saddam Hussein’s deadly arsenal, by peaceful means if we can, by force if we must,” Kerry said.
Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy continues to oppose the Iraq resolution. Since the end of September he has been a leading Democrat against military action, arguing that a war in Iraq would undermine the war against terrorism, disrupt interests in the Middle East, and put American lives in jeopardy.
In a statement released this week Sen. Kennedy commended Bush for taking his case to the American people in his speech on Monday, but said the President failed to show that the “the time has come for war.”
“There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein is a despicable tyrant…but the war against terrorism and our wider interests in the region and the world demand a course that relies on war only as a last resort, after all reasonable alternatives have been fairly tried,” Kennedy said.
Bush’s prime-time speech from Cincinnati did not outline a specific military plan of action, but warned that the United States must intervene before Saddam Hussein has the chance to act.
“Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud,” Bush said.
Kennedy said that without an outline of what a possible war would like it would be wrong to send troops to Iraq.
“Before Congress acts, the Administration has an obligation to the Congress and the American people to explain the potential consequence of war. As of now, it has not,” said Kennedy’s statement.
Senate and House leaders hope that a final vote on the resolution will follow the end of floor debate on Thursday.
Published in The Newburyport Daily News, in Massachusetts.
