*EPF103 09/16/2002
Senators Speak Out on U.S. Policy on Iraq
(Lawmakers note threat posed by Saddam Hussein) (660)

By Steve LaRocque
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- President Bush is starting to garner support among senators for his policy toward Iraq.

Senator Joseph Lieberman (Democrat of Connecticut) in a September 13 speech to the Senate said he would work with the White House to get a broad-based resolution passed in Congress regarding Iraq.

From both political parties, lawmakers are beginning to stake out positions on U.S. policy toward Saddam Hussein's Baghdad regime.

The Republicans hold a 223-209 majority in the House of Representatives, with one Independent who votes with the Democrats. In the Senate, the Democrats hold a narrow 50-49 lead, with one Independent who caucuses with the Democrats. To get a resolution supporting the use of force against Iraq in the Senate would require getting some Democratic lawmakers to side with President Bush, who represents the Republican Party.

In a September 12 speech in the Senate, Senator John Edwards (Democrat of North Carolina) said the issue of Iraq is a national security issue.

Edwards, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said Saddam Hussein has "obsessively" sought weapons of mass destruction for "at least twenty years."

"We know that he has chemical and biological weapons today," Edwards said. "He has used them in the past, and he is doing everything he can to build more."

The North Carolina Democrat added that each day the Iraqi dictator was moving closer "to his longtime goal of nuclear capability -- a capability that could be less than a year away."

Saddam Hussein's regime, Edwards said, "represents a clear threat to the United States, to our allies, to our interests around the world, and to the values of freedom and democracy we hold dear."

The United States, he continued, "must lead an international effort to remove the regime of Saddam Hussein -- and to assure that Iraq fulfills its obligations to the international community."

Such a course of action will carry a cost in resources and "in lives," but the risk of inaction, he went on, "is far greater than the risk of action."

While supporting action against the Iraqi dictator, Edwards did criticize the Bush administration for not doing enough to ensure the success of democracy in Afghanistan.

Senator John Breaux (Democrat of Louisiana), the Deputy Majority Whip or number three Democrat in the Senate, said he supported President Bush's decision to take the issue of Iraq to the United Nations.

In a September 12 speech, Breaux, who voted for a resolution to use force against Iraq in 1991, said Bush's speech before the United Nations was "a strong indictment of Saddam Hussein's regime, and his disregard for the international community and international law."

Breaux scorned what he termed Saddam Hussein's "defiance" of United Nations resolutions and his violations of the terms of the cease-fire at the end of the Gulf War.

"President Bush's speech provides Saddam Hussein with a final opportunity to comply with the mandates placed on him by the international community," said Breaux.

The Louisiana Democrat, who heads the Centrist Coalition, a group of 33 Democratic and Republican senators who often seek a middle-of-the-road solution on issues, said, President Bush "must continue to press our case for the disarmament of Saddam Hussein."

Senator Charles Grassley (Republican of Iowa), speaking on the anniversary of the terror attacks on the United States, said President Bush, with an aim of keeping Americans secure, has worked to keep Saddam Hussein "from unleashing weapons of mass destruction against the United States and the world."

However, he added, "President Bush needs to continue making the case to the American people, Congress and our allies abroad, that freedom and peace will remain at risk until rogue dictators and others who harbor terrorists and finance their evil schemes are no longer able to do so."

Grassley, who was one of only two Republican senators to vote against the resolution to use force against Saddam Hussein in 1991, said that one year after the terror attacks some Americans don't realize that the United States is in a war, or that the United States will be in a war "for some time to come."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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