The Iraqi threat is imminent???

Bush Rhetoric on Iraq Divides Congress
Jan 29, 8:45 AM (ET)

By DAVID ESPO

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans are closing ranks, Democrats voicing doubts, after President Bush's State of the Union vow to use the "full force and might of the U.S. military" if needed to disarm Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

"Unless we stand fast and stand strong, the forces of evil will not disappear," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Tuesday night after Bush's speech before Congress and a global television audience that included U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf. "This is not the time for the timid leadership offered by the naysayers."

But Bush had scarcely completed his condemnation of the Iraqi leader - including an explicit, prime time listing of Iraqi torture techniques - when Sen. Edward Kennedy issued a fresh challenge. "Instead of rushing down the path to war with Iraq, the American people deserve a full debate," the Massachusetts Democrat said.

Congress voted last fall to authorize military action, but Kennedy said he wanted to require Bush to give Congress "convincing evidence of an imminent threat" before sending troops to war.


Half of the president's speech - delivered to a crowded House chamber and with hundreds of protesters on the Capitol lawn outside - was devoted to domestic policy, a recognition that the economy needs mending and that the new GOP-controlled Congress is eager to tackle issues ranging from overhauling Medicare to curtailing abortion to limiting damage awards from medical malpractice lawsuits.

With the polls showing a decline in support for his handling of the economy, Bush pressed Congress to give swift approval to the $674 billion in tax cuts.

"Jobs are created when the economy grows; the economy grows when Americans have more money to spend and invest; and the best, fairest way to make sure that Americans have that money is not to tax it away in the first place," the president said.

Bush did not say so, but the centerpiece of his program, elimination of the tax on corporate dividends, has elicited almost universal opposition from Democrats, and few expressions of enthusiasm from Republicans.

Even as people were still talking about Bush's speech, the Congressional Budget Office came out Wednesday with daunting new projections of red-ink problems in the immediate future.

The nonpartisan office projected deficits of $199 billion this year and $145 billion in 2004 - even if no new tax cuts or spending increases are enacted. The new figures, obtained by The Associated Press, marked the latest decline in what has been two years of steady decay in the government's economic expectations.

Gov. Gary Locke of Washington, delivering the formal Democratic response, accused the administration of pursuing "upside down economics" that offered a tax cut tilted too heavily toward the wealthy and offered little by way of immediate stimulus.

Congressional Democrats generally support an alternative that would cut taxes by $300 per person this year, and offer billions of dollars to cash-strapped states.

In his speech, Bush also urged Congress to act this year on his $400 billion, 10-year plan to "overhaul and strengthen Medicare." Seniors who like their current coverage should be permitted to retain it, he said. Others "should have the choice of a health plan that provides prescription drugs," added the president, who was traveling to Grand Rapids, Mich., Wednesday to seek support for his program.

Bush said he would send Powell to the United Nations next week to "present information and intelligence about Iraq's illegal weapons program."

He said the Iraqi leader has not accounted for up to 25,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulin toxin, 500 tons of sarin, mustard gas and VX nerve agent and some 30,000 munitions that can be equipped with chemical weapons.

Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, denied that.

"The accusations of Mr. Bush in his statement last night are baseless, simply baseless," he said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Said Bush: "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option."

Key allies, including France and Germany, oppose military action in Iraq at present and want Bush to give U.N. weapons inspectors more time. On that point, the president said, "We will consult, but let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people, and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him."

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle remained unconvinced.

"Before we commit the first life, the first American soldier in Iraq, we need to have more positive proof," he said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, said Bush "did not make a convincing case that the use of force now is the only way to disarm Iraq, or that removing Saddam from power would guarantee that a new regime would not pursue the same policies."

 

Excuse me for posting an article about a major Iraqi policy shift, with direct quotes from Bush.

 

Bush did say in the height of the midterm elections that Iraq was an emerging threat. I guessed he lied then to get more votes for his Congressional candidates. What a leader Bush is turning out to be!!!

 

Is this like "they took the word is and made ... is"?

 

Throw in that "Saddam will have the bomb by Christmas" and emerging becomes imminent.

 

Either way, the Bush Admin was disingenuous in that remark.