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Bush tie my hands { October 2 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30056-2002Oct1.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30056-2002Oct1.html
Bush Rejects Hill Limits on Resolution Allowing War
By Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 2, 2002; Page A01
President Bush yesterday rejected congressional efforts to limit his options to confront Iraq, part of what is shaping up as a successful though contentious campaign to win unfettered power from lawmakers to strike Saddam Hussein.
"I don't want to get a resolution which ties my hands," the president told reporters. He called for a congressional resolution that "sends a clear signal that the country is determined to disarm Iraq and thereby bring peace to the world."
The proposed language that Bush rejected yesterday was backed by a handful of Republican and Democratic senators prominent in national security matters. But with debate over a war resolution scheduled to begin today, substantial and bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate appear ready to grant the president what he has requested from the start: congressional approval to strike Iraqi President Hussein's regime with or without the blessing of world leaders and for whatever reasons the White House deems appropriate.
"We'll be speaking with one voice soon," Bush said. "All of us recognize the military option is not the first choice, but disarming him is."
The president continued his campaign yesterday, playing host to a group of supportive lawmakers who left the White House just in time to praise Bush's plans on evening news programs. His aides, meanwhile, spent much of the day negotiating with proponents of the alternative measure, primarily Sens. Joseph R. Biden (D-Del.) and Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.). Their version would limit Bush's war-making power to making Hussein disarm, and it would require the president, before using that power, to brief Congress on his efforts to gain United Nations backing.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice and other administration officials have been calling Democratic senators in search of middle ground. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) predicted the White House will come up some "ambiguous" language that allows both sides to claim victory and greases the skids for 85 of 100 senators to fall in line behind Bush.
The Senate debate is likely to center on three approaches to the situation in Iraq:
• The Bush plan, which would give the president maximum flexibility to launch military action against Iraq.
• The Biden-Lugar plan, which would require Bush, before taking military action, to inform Congress that he has sought a U.N. resolution of support or that he has determined the Iraqi threat warrants U.S. action unilaterally.
• A plan by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), which would require Bush to win U.N. approval for military action.
Levin's plan, although attractive to anti-war liberals, is unlikely to attract GOP support. So the final resolution is likely to resemble Bush's demand for unlimited power with language drawn from Biden-Lugar that calls for building international support, lawmakers said.
Despite their clear minority position, Biden and Lugar -- the chairman and former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, respectively -- indicated they were prepared to fight, scheduling a committee meeting today to discuss their alternative in public.
Even many Democrats are loath to link U.S. action to U.N. weapons inspections inside Iraq. "I am concerned [Hussein] will be giving the international community the rope-a-dope for months on end while he continues his efforts to amass weapons of mass destruction," Bayh said. "To precondition our action to weapons inspectors, you run the risk of deluding yourself."
Bush is demanding the authority to strike if Hussein fails to comply with U.N. resolutions unrelated to weapons of mass destruction, including one that requires Hussein to return people and property "wrongfully" seized by Iraq from Kuwait. Lugar said Bush wants to be granted the power "to go to war, in essence, to enforce these captives' being returned."
Lugar met yesterday with Rice and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to discuss a compromise, but one was not reached.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) continued to work more closely with Bush on the Iraq question than has Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.). Gephardt sent his own draft language to Bush early yesterday. It included a requirement that Bush work more closely with the United Nations, report to Congress on plans for a post-Hussein Iraq, and make the determination that attacking Iraq would not interfere with the broader war on terrorism.
A person involved in the talks said White House officials raised concerns that the final stipulation could embarrass the president if terrorists attack the United States before or during actions against Iraq. Gephardt discussed the situation with Bush by phone around 1 p.m. and learned that the White House was shopping a new draft incorporating many of his proposed changes.
Lugar, who reviewed that draft, said it failed to address his concerns and in fact made the process even more complex. Still, Lugar said Bush is likely to emerge with unlimited authority to carry out his plans.
Aside from the question of U.N. consultations, the biggest area of disagreement between the Biden-Lugar plan and the White House plan centers on justifications for attacking Iraq.
The bulk of the White House text is a series of "whereas" clauses listing all the U.N. Security Council resolutions that Hussein has violated. They include demands that he respect restrictions on his oil exports, end human rights violations against Iraqis, return unaccounted-for prisoners from the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and refrain from any threatening actions against neighboring countries, in addition to eliminating chemical, biological and nuclear development and possible stockpiles.
The White House contends that Congress already approved U.S. action against Hussein for violations of any of those resolutions, as part of the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act. "I don't want . . . a resolution which is weaker than that which was passed out of the Congress in 1998," Bush said.
The White House appears to be combining its preferred parts of two Iraq-related congressional resolutions from 1998, adopted several months apart. The first, which was limited to Iraqi violation of U.N. disarmament demands, urged the president to take unspecified "appropriate action," in accordance with U.S. law, "to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations" on such weapons.
The later Iraq Liberation Act, which authorized U.S. support for Iraqi opposition forces trying to overthrow Hussein, referred to the entire range of U.N. resolutions. It specifically ruled out U.S. military action for such regime change.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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