Congress Expected to Approve Use of Military Force Against Iraq

Oct. 8, 2002

"Military option is my last choice, the last choice. But should we commit our military, we'll be ready. We'll be prepared. We'll have a great plan and make no mistake about it, we will prevail."
President Bush

Congress began a fateful three-day debate Tuesday on authorizing President Bush to use force to disarm Saddam. If forced into war, "We will prevail," President Bush declared.

"At this moment, the people's house begins debate on one of the most difficult questions we will ever face," said Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif.

Both the House and Senate hope to conclude by Thursday night, with expectations they would approve a resolution providing the president wide latitude to take military action to disarm Saddam of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and, if possible, depose the Iraqi leader.

Anticipating an overwhelming vote of support in Congress, Mr. Bush told a Knoxville, Tenn., rally on Tuesday, "Military option is my last choice, the last choice. But should we commit our military, we'll be ready. We'll be prepared. We'll have a great plan and make no mistake about it, we will prevail."

Secretary of State Colin Powell, meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, said the congressional resolution "will definitely strengthen my hand as I try to do the diplomatic work up in New York to get a United Nations Security Council resolution" requiring unimpeded weapons inspections in Iraq.

Powell said there was increasing support at the U.N. for a new inspections mandate. "All of my colleagues at the United Nations and others I've spoken to around the world clearly see the threat," he said.

At the Pentagon, a Defense Intelligence Agency official told reporters that Saddam is actively making biological and chemical weapons — and trying to hide that fact from the world.

Iraq is "taking steps to conceal sensitive equipment and documentation in anticipation of new inspections," John Yurechko said.

CIA Director George Tenet, meanwhile, said Saddam Hussein's apparent policy of not resorting to terrorist attacks against the United States could change if he concludes a U.S.-led attack against was inevitable.

Tenet, in a letter read before a joint hearing of the House and Senate intelligence committees Tuesday, said that "Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or chemical or biological weapons."

But Tenet went on to say that should Saddam conclude that a U.S.-led attack against his country could not be deterred, "he probably would become much less constrained in adopting terrorist action."

In a somber address to the nation Monday evening, Mr. Bush said the threat from Iraq was unique and imminent and there was no time to wait for final proof that Saddam had developed a nuclear capability — "the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."

"While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place," the president said.

Mr. Bush told a Cincinnati audience in his televised speech that Saddam was "a homicidal dictator who is addicted to weapons of mass destruction," and that if he succeeds in obtaining nuclear weapons to add to his biological and chemical stockpiles, he "would be in a position to blackmail anyone who opposes his aggression."

While the president's job approval rating remains high, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds that Americans still have plenty of questions about going after Saddam. Most notably they are wondering why the president - and Congress - are spending so much time on Iraq. Seventy percent of those polled say they want to hear more about the economy than war.

And although a majority of Americans support the idea of military action, they overwhelmingly want to give weapons inspectors time before sending in the troops and want the U.S. to wait for its allies before acting.

In Baghdad, the government of Iraq on Tuesday described Mr. Bush's speech as an attempt to justify an attack.

"The speech contained misleading information through which Bush is trying to justify an illogical and illegitimate attack on Iraq," said Foreign Minister Naji Sabri Sabri.

On Tuesday, a Pentagon official reiterated U.S. warnings that Iraqi military officers should refuse orders to use chemical or biological weapons. Any Iraqis involved in such attacks would be treated as war criminals after the conflict ended, said Douglas Feith, undersecretary for policy at the Defense Department.

The House has allotted 21 hours to debate what House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., a chief sponsor of the White House-backed resolution, called "one of the most consequential questions we will deal with for years to come."

That resolution urges the United Nations to enforce strict new rules on inspecting Iraq and eliminating its weapons of mass destruction, while giving the president the authority to act unilaterally if the United Nations fails to crack down on the Iraqi threat. It also requires the president to notify Congress, no later than 48 hours after commencing military action, on why diplomatic efforts were inadequate.

Mr. Bush said congressional authorization of a military strike "does not mean that military action is imminent or unavoidable. The resolution will tell the United Nations, and all nations, that America speaks with one voice and is determined to make the demands of the civilized world mean something."

Both the House and Senate will also vote on more narrowly drawn alternatives, backed mainly by Democrats, that would authorize force only to deal with the Iraqi weapons buildup and allow unilateral action against Iraq only after the United Nations fails to act or Iraq refuses to cooperate with demands for unfettered inspections.

There was little doubt, however, that the Bush-backed language would win out in the end, probably by a sizable margin.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/03/national/main524191.shtml