U.S. House, Senate stand by Bush, troops

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, OCT. 8. As the United States and British assault continue on for the second day, the U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, is getting unprecedented support for the military strikes against Afghanistan.

Senior Congressional leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives who were informed several hours before the first strike issued a statement supporting the decision.

``We stand united with the President and with our troops and we will continue to work together to do what is necessary to bring justice to these terrorists and those who harbour them,'' it said. The statement was signed by the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate and the House.

The first unofficial opinion polls show overwhelming approval for the way in which Mr. Bush handled the situation. He has broad and solid support from the American public partly as there is an impression that the decision to go ahead with the attack was a carefully-studied one.

There is no hint that Mr. Bush has dropped even one percentage point from the 90-per cent rating he has been having in the last three weeks. On Sunday, when he walked into the White House and gave his short seven-minute speech to the nation, he looked confident of the task he was taking on.

Senior White House aides say that Mr. Bush told them in a meeting of having given the Taliban every possible chance of getting out of the mess. At the very last minute on Sunday, the White House dismissed Taliban's suggestion that ``negotiations'' could end the impasse. The tough position that Mr. Bush took till the very end was that there could be no negotiation when it came to terrorism or a nation harbouring terror networks.

Senior lawmakers say that there is nothing like a blank cheque to Mr. Bush in this campaign against terrorism. Capitol Hill has been hardly inclined to question the White House and Mr. Bush on almost anything.

For now, Mr. Bush is keeping the military strikes focussed on Afghanistan - the Taliban militia, Osama bin Laden and the Al- Qaeda network. But there is pressure within the administration and from Congress that once Osama and Afghanistan are out of the way, the U.S. must turn its attention to Iraq. Hardliners in the Bush administration - especially in the Pentagon - have been urging a simultaneous hit on the Saddam Hussein regime.

Part of the focus on Iraq stems from some intelligence reports that one of the hijackers who crashed his plane into the World Trade Centre on September 11 may have met an Iraqi intelligence official two years ago. And many others in the political and the intelligence community are convinced that the horrific attacks on New York and Washington could not have taken place without ``state support''.

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Section  : International
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