US Congress Likely to OK Bush's Iraq Request

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, September 23, 2002

US Congress Likely to OK Bush's Iraq Request

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Lawmakers predicted Sunday that President Bush's request for a mandate to restore regional security in the Mideast would be scaled down to address just Iraq, allowing congressional authorization to take on Saddam Hussein.

There were also bipartisan pleas for Israeli restraint in the face of Iraqi provocation, although members of Congress said they would understand if Israel felt the need to respond to attacks.

The White House has proposed a resolution that would authorize the president "to use all means that he determines to be appropriate, including force, in order to ... defend the national security interests of the United States against the threat posed by Iraq, and restore international peace and security in the region."

"It's much too broad, there's no limit at all on presidential powers," said Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"There needs to be some changes ... it's not even limited to Iraq," Levin, D-Mich., said on "Fox News Sunday."

Bush wants the U.N. Security Council to enforce bans on weapons of mass destruction against Iraq. The United States believes Iraq is stockpiling deadly chemical and biological weapons, and is rebuilding its nuclear weapons program.

Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said keeping "region" in would set too broad a precedent.

"I predict that won't be the language," Biden told CNN's Late Edition, adding that the White House was amenable to change.

"They've made it clear to me that they understand they want to talk about it. ... We can clean this up in a way that we don't set a precedent for future presidents," said Biden, D-Del.

Some Republicans sympathized with the need to contain the language. "These are very, very important definitions, because it will guide the president and this nation probably into war," Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said on ABC's "This Week."

Even those comfortable with the proposed language said they would accommodate change to speed it through. The White House wants the legislation to pass before Congress recesses before elections Nov. 5.

"We can correct that, it don't think that's fatal to the heart of the resolution," said Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations committee.

Still, Hyde, R-Ill., called the objections "specious" and said the proposed resolution was standard

Hagel and Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz. predicted the resolution would easily pass before the elections, but Biden warned that Bush needed to work harder to explain his plans.

"The American people are grown up," he said. "You tell them what we need to do, tell them the threat, and they will back the president. But we haven't told them all of the story yet."

He and Levin also urged Bush to work closely with the Security Council, saying it would bolster domestic backing for any war.

"There is a degree of confidence that increases in direct proportion to the notion that we are not going to be going alone with this," Biden said.

Levin said the Iraqi president was more likely to fold before joint action than if he were threatened by the United States alone. "I want him to look down the barrel of a gun with the world behind it."

Whatever the stakes, lawmakers urged Israel to avoid retaliating against any Iraqi provocation.

"The Israelis going into it could just be a widespread war in the Middle East," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said on CBS' Face the Nation.

Biden agreed. "You would find probably every embassy in the Middle East burned to the ground before it went too far," he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel would heed U.S. appeals for restraint, but reserved the right to respond if it were attacked.

"We understand there is not going to be two wars and there are not going to be two supreme commands," Peres said on CNN. "It will be, should be coordinated ... and also, we insist on our rights."

The Pentagon has delivered to Bush a detailed set of options for using military force to remove Hussein and neutralize his most dangerous weapons, according to a senior defense official.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that the Pentagon favors a "narrowly focused ... intense" war that would target Saddam and the elite surrounding him, instead of the infrastructure targets that were characteristic of the 1991 Gulf War and actions since then.

One focus of the next war would be Tikrit, Saddam's hometown 100 miles north of Baghdad. The Iraqi leader draws most of his confidantes from extended family in the Tikrit area.

Source: Agencies

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