Frank Favors Restraint on Iraq
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2002–U.S. Rep. Barney Frank will not support a resolution authorizing President Bush to use military force against Iraq unless and until the United Nations confirms Iraq’s production of weapons of mass destruction.
“I do not favor sending the U.S. troops to Iraq now,” Rep. Frank, D-Mass., said after attending a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus last week. “Let the inspectors in.”
Massachusetts’ two senators were more ambivalent about their positions on a draft resolution sent to Congress Thursday, which would support immediate military action in Iraq.
The senators seemed to support the idea of a resolution without endorsing the specific language contained in the draft.
Congress is promising a quick vote on President Bush’s request for authority to use military force against Iraq, moving toward a show of unity to back up the president’s effort to gain support on Iraq from Russia and other wary nations.
Bush called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday as part of an all-out campaign to win Russian acquiescence for the anti-Iraq campaign.
Leaders from both parties welcomed a draft proposal Bush offered Thursday in which Congress would authorize the president to “use all means,” including military force, to defend U.S. national security interests against the threat posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said both the House and Senate could vote on the resolution as early as the first week in October before lawmakers go home to campaign for the Nov. 5 election. He said lawmakers would review the president’s proposal over the weekend, but “I’m perfectly happy with the language.”
Rep. Frank, however, urged the Bush administration and Congress to give Saddam Hussein one more chance so that, hopefully, there would be no need to invade Iraq. Mr. Bush, however, said while meeting with congressional leaders in the Oval Office, “(Hussein) deceives, he delays, he denies.”
Massachusetts’ two senators seemed more supportive of the resolution than Rep. Frank.
“We are going through a legitimate process that empowers the United States to act with the greatest amount of international support and with the greatest understanding of the American people,” Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., said. “If you make that effort … we have greater justification to take action.”
In his comments, Democrat Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts’ senior senator, seemed to support the idea of a resolution but not necessarily the language in the draft sent to congress last week.
“We expected this working draft from the White House to be broad,” he said Friday. “We’ll continue working with the White House on appropriate language, with the goal of developing a resolution that protects the United States. There’s no doubt that Saddam Hussein’s regime is a serious threat, and we must continue to work with the United Nations to end that threat. War must be a last resort, not the first resort.”
Four days after President Bush’s address at the U.N. General Assembly demanding enforcement of the U.N. Security Council resolutions on Iraq, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan received a letter from Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri promising unconditional access for U.N. inspectors.
President Bush seemed disappointed by that pledge, Rep. Frank said, adding, “Part of the problem is (Bush) did not want Saddam Hussein to let the inspectors in.”
Published in The New Bedford Standard Times, in Massachusetts.
