Collins Supports Iraq Resolution
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2002–As the Senate prepared to vote on its resolution to authorize U.S. military action against Iraq, Republican Sen. Susan Collins announced Thursday that she would support the measure. Collins, who had been publicly undecided, said she was persuaded ultimately by an extensive recent conversation with Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said that a credible threat of the use of force was necessary to effectively disarm Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
“In my view, there are times in dealing with a tyrant when the best-indeed, perhaps the only-chance to avoid war is to express in unmistakable terms your willingness to wage it. And this, Mr. President, is one of those times,” Collins said in remarks prepared for delivery on the Senate floor later Thursday.
In her statement, Collins addressed the catastrophic risks that she believes lie before the United States if action isn’t taken against Iraq. Stating that the threat is “clear and chilling,” she added, “The price we may have to pay today to eliminate it will prove modest compared with the price we will have to pay tomorrow.”
“While none of us can predict for certain whether or when Saddam would strike, there are far too many warning signs in his past behavior and present undertakings,” Collins said in her text. “His cold-blooded willingness to use chemical weapons against his own people as well as his enemies, his aggressive invasion of two nations, his blatant defiance of international sanctions, his continued efforts to procure materials to build a nuclear bomb, and his determined progress in developing a better means of delivering chemical and biological weapons-all strongly suggest an intention and an ability to use these weapons.”
Collins, along with others in the Maine delegation, said she hopes military force will be the last resort in disarming Iraq. In her text, she said she wants disarmament, rather than regime change, to be the focus of U.S. policy toward Iraq. The Senate was expected to vote Thursday night or Friday on the resolution. Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe expressed her support for the resolution Wednesday.
Published in The Bangor Daily News, in Maine.
