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Al-Qaida Link Could Hand U.S. Power to Oust Saddam
Monday, July 22, 2002
The Associated Press

"The president has the authority right now if, in fact, he has reason to believe that we're under a threat of imminent attack. No one's has made that case yet," said Biden, D-Del. "And this will be the first time ever in the history of the United States of America that we have essentially invaded another country pre-emptively to take out a leadership, I think justifiably given the case being made."

WASHINGTON -- AP
A proven link between Iraq and the al-Qaida terror network would give President Bush authority to remove Saddam Hussein by force, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Sunday.

Such a connection, Sen. Joseph Biden said, would satisfy requirements of September's legislation that authorized all force necessary to retaliate against al-Qaida and any of its sponsors.

The war in Afghanistan, which has ended the rule of the Taliban militia and dispersed al-Qaida's top leaders, is being fought under those rules.

Biden was asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether Iraq's president could face a similar fate if he were found in league with Osama bin Laden's terrorists. Speaking of Bush, Biden said: "If he can prove that, yes, he would have the authority in my view."

Lynne Weil, spokeswoman for the Senate Foreign Relations committee, pointed out later, however, that the resolution Biden referred to "spells out clearly what type of links" were covered and that Biden had not meant to suggest that any "mere link" by some tenuous definition would be covered.
(More: The New Haven Register News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

I was thinking Senator Biden might have just been too young to recall, but we’re still holding the leader of a nation in a Florida U.S. federal penitentiary. Reagan’s much acclaimed War on Drugs took down one Manuel Noriega back in 1989. That would put the senator at 46-years-old at the time, and already in the senate for 17 years.

Pretty sure Manuel did not leave Panama in answer to any U.S. sponsored social invite, and in fact I seem to recall a lot of Panamanian rejoicing at his being routed out of Panama City by U.S. forces. I call that an invasion, albeit one cheered by the people in the Republic of Panama as a great and noble gesture in support of democracy, with free and open elections (generally, we end up just doing the right thing).

Then again, perhaps the good senator simply doesn't look upon a declared War on Drugs as being a real war -- but I guarantee the folks who took down Noriega did.

A big difference between then and now, though, would be a lack of U.S. presence in the region. Panamanians knew who it was they were supporting. Many had met with Americans over the decades by way of out Canal Zone settlement, and many counted local Americans, whether U.S. Militaries or Pan-Canal employees, among their friends. They had an excellent idea of how America worked, and they liked the idea.

Iraq would be an entirely different kettle of fish -- not that they don’t remember our last visit...

Dan