The Hindu : Bush likely to have his way on Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 11, 2002

International

International

Bush likely to have his way on Iraq

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington Oct. 10. The opposition to the Iraq resolution in the Senate appears to be rapidly folding and key Democrats who once opposed the White House are quickly falling in line behind the Commander-in-Chief. And the Majority Leader, Tom Daschle, has made it known that he is not for delaying the vote on the resolution.

The support from key Democrats came from the Senate's Number Two, Harry Reid of Nevada, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and John Kerry of Massachussetts. Mr.Reid, however had a word of caution to Mr.Bush: "As President of the United States, you are the leader of the free world, not its ruler''.

The backing of critical Democrats means that the White House can expect a solid number of law makers there to back the resolution.

"I will vote yes'', said Mr. Kerry pointing to the fact that this Republican administration, including the President had recognised that war must be the last option. A key note of approval also came from the Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska who had earlier expressed reservations on how to go about dealing with Iraq and its leader, Saddam Hussein. Mr. Hagel, too, had a note of caution that the U. S. must be careful about how others perceived its intentions.

All the support for the administration has not rattled the veteran Democrat from West Virginia, Robert Byrd, who is still saying that he will use all his legislative experience to block any vote until next week.

But Mr. Daschle has disapproved of the idea and has said that he will use all his known parliamentary manoeuvres to get the resolution to vote by Thursday. If Mr. Byrd prevails, the Senate vote will not come until late Sunday or Monday.

The House of Representatives is set to vote later in the day on the resolution with opposition there also said to be coming down.

The bottom line is that the administration and the White House are getting a Congressional resolution on Iraq more to the liking of Mr. Bush. The only academic `suspense' is if both the Senate and the House votes are coming today.

The stage has been set in the Senate for the resolution and a raft of alternative proposals and amendments will have to be shot down before law makers get to the main one.

On Wednesday, for example, Senators voted down 88 to 10 an amendment to expand the President's authority for pre-emptive strikes to include five terrorist organisations, including the Hamas and the Hezbollah.

The author of this amendment, Democratic Senator Bob Graham, argued that focussing solely on Iraq could distract the war on terrorism.

Meanwhile at the United Nations, differences still persist between the United States and other major powers on the proposed new Iraq resolution.

A 25-minute telephone conversation between Mr. Bush and the French leader, Jacques Chirac, could not resolve the differences as Paris while agreeable to expanding the scope of the United Nations weapons inspectors is not for any automatic use of force in case Iraq balked. Further, Russia and China want to give Mr. Hussein another chance to cooperate with the world body.

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