Kennedy Demands Pre-War Evidence From Bush
By Scott Brooks
WASHINGTON – With President Bush indicating that war with Iraq may be imminent, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-MA, is asking Congress to reconsider its resolution authorizing the president to use military force in Iraq.
Sen. Kennedy, one of only 23 senators to oppose the October resolution, conceived the idea for a new resolution just hours before Mr. Bush addressed the nation Tuesday night. If passed, it would require the president to come back to Congress and present “convincing evidence of an immediate threat” before launching a war against Iraq.
“Circumstances have changed significantly since Congress approved that resolution last October,” Sen. Kennedy said. Those changes “have only strengthened my belief that this is the wrong war at the wrong time.”
During the fall deliberations on the war resolution, he said, the president had not yet decided to go to war. Despite the failure of United Nations inspectors to find a “smoking gun,” Sen. Kennedy said, the president is pushing the nation toward what may become “the first great humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century.”
Sen. Kennedy, who has been outspoken in calling for further debate before the country marches off to war, has long opposed action against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. In 1991, the senator voted against the resolution giving the first President Bush the go-ahead for the Persian Gulf War.
Mike Spahn, a spokesman for Sen. Kennedy, said “a few” senators already have expressed support for the Kennedy resolution. Among senators calling for further debate before going to war, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-WV, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, complimented the Bay State senator on his proposal. Sen. Byrd Tuesday introduced his own resolution, co-sponsored by Sen. Kennedy, that would postpone an attack on Iraq unless the president receives a second UN resolution authorizing an attack.
Still, some say it is not viable after last year’s overwhelming vote to give Bush full authority in sending troops to Iraq. The Republican-controlled House approved the October resolution by more than two to one before winning by an even larger percentage in the then-majority-Democratic Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-SD, who voted in favor of the October resolution, told CNN Wednesday morning that he is “not sure that a resolution in this case is called for.”
“We ought to have one last opportunity to think very carefully about what our options are before we make that commitment” to go to war, Daschle told CNN. However, he said, “I don’t think that has to take the form of a resolution.”
Tom Mann, a senior fellow in governmental studies at the Brookings Institution, called Kennedy’s resolution a “largely rhetorical step.”
“There isn’t any chance of this being taken seriously,” said Mr. Mann, who noted that the president is subject to reporting and consultation requirements before going to war.
Published in The New Bedford Standard Times, in Massachusetts.
