<

Senate Democratic Hawks on Iraq Rap Bush
Monday, October 7, 2002
By Vicki Allen
Reuters

While he had reservations about the United States launching a preemptive attack, he [Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas] said he now felt Iraq's long-standing violation of a U.N. weapons inspections regime and its repeated firing on patrolling U.S. aircraft meant this would not be a first strike but a case of self defense.

WASHINGTON -- Reuters
With Congress set to give President Bush the power he wants to attack Iraq, two possible Democratic presidential contenders and leading hawks on Iraq on Monday said Bush was bungling U.S. relations with allies and underestimating the difficulty of rebuilding Iraq.

North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, both considering presidential runs in 2004, took different stabs at Bush's policies on Iraq and his foreign policy in general, despite being co-sponsors of the war powers resolution that Congress is debating.

Edwards, in a stinging speech, blamed Bush for being slow to enlist international support, making an inadequate effort in Russia and elsewhere to stem the flow of materials for weapons of mass destruction and for asserting "a new doctrine that suggests a uniquely American right to use force wherever and whenever we decide it's appropriate."

Edwards, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Bush administration "often treats allies as an afterthought," and said "it was wrong not trying to build an international consensus from the beginning" in its showdown with Iraq.

* SENATE, HOUSE TAKE UP RESOLUTION
(More: The Macon Telegraph News Source)
2002 © Reuters, Ltd.

Dan