Monday, October 13, 2003
Routy in DC:
Senators Say Bush Needs to Take Control
Iraq Policy Disputes Cited
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 13, 2003; Page A14
A key Republican lawmaker urged President Bush yesterday to take control of his fractious foreign policy team and plans for Iraq's reconstruction, as one Democrat deepened his criticism of the administration's arguments for going to war.
"The president has to be president," Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "That means the president over the vice president, and over these secretaries" of state and defense. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice "cannot carry that burden alone."
In the first week of the administration's public relations campaign to explain its Iraq policy and highlight its achievements, Lugar noted that Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Rice had given speeches whose tone "was distinctly different" and that senators were rightly concerned about "the strength, the coherence of our policies."
Lugar, a moderate Republican, predicted Iraq's reconstruction would cost $50 billion more than the $87 billion the White House is seeking from Congress for military and reconstruction efforts, and that the duration of U.S. involvement in Iraq "may be comparable to Bosnia," where U.S. and European peacekeepers are nearing their eighth year of deployment.
He and the ranking member of the committee, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), predicted narrow approval of the $87 billion Iraq reconstruction request. But both said the administration had to improve its plan for turning over power to Iraqis, and Lugar added that it should make "a genuine attempt" to persuade competent allies, including "Germany, France, Russia and China" to join the peacekeeping effort.
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, said yesterday he was "inclined not to" vote for the $87 billion request and criticized Bush for "haphazard, shotgun, shoot-from-the-hip diplomacy" on Iraq.
Divisions over Iraq policy reflect larger ideological differences within Bush's national security team. Cheney and Rumsfeld have pursued more hard-line, unilateralist approaches to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea; Powell favors dialogue and greater efforts to include allies.
Last week, with rising concerns about the direction and public perception of the Iraq reconstruction project, the White House put Rice in charge of the effort, possibly at the expense of the Defense Department, which had been running the show.
Biden, responding to news that Bush had asked Rice to unify the differing views on Iraq, said Bush had to "take charge, settle this dispute. Let your secretary of defense, state, and your vice president know, 'This is my policy. Any one of you that divert from the policy is off the team.' "
Kerry, who voted for the congressional war resolution before the invasion, stepped up his attacks on Bush's decision to go to war in the first place. He said some of the administration's pre-war assertions about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction "misled America."
"They told us there were aerial vehicles" to deliver Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. "They weren't there," he said, speaking on ABC's "This Week." "They told us they had a 45-minute deployment period for weapons of mass destruction. That wasn't true. They told us they were on the road to nuclear weaponization. That was not true."
"He ought to apologize to the people of this country because what they've done now is launch a PR campaign instead of a real policy," Kerry said. "We need to go to the United Nations more humbly, more directly, more honestly, solicit help in a way that brings the United Nations into this effort, or you are going to continue to see bomb after bomb after bomb."
Kerry also derided the administration's effort to portray current efforts in Iraq as international in nature. "We have a fraudulent coalition, and I use the word 'fraud.' It's a few people here, a few people there. It's basically the British, and, most fundamentally, the United States of America."
"This administration has alienated people all across this planet," he said. "They have, in fact, made America less safe."
Senators Say Bush Needs to Take Control
Iraq Policy Disputes Cited
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 13, 2003; Page A14
A key Republican lawmaker urged President Bush yesterday to take control of his fractious foreign policy team and plans for Iraq's reconstruction, as one Democrat deepened his criticism of the administration's arguments for going to war.
"The president has to be president," Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "That means the president over the vice president, and over these secretaries" of state and defense. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice "cannot carry that burden alone."
In the first week of the administration's public relations campaign to explain its Iraq policy and highlight its achievements, Lugar noted that Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Rice had given speeches whose tone "was distinctly different" and that senators were rightly concerned about "the strength, the coherence of our policies."
Lugar, a moderate Republican, predicted Iraq's reconstruction would cost $50 billion more than the $87 billion the White House is seeking from Congress for military and reconstruction efforts, and that the duration of U.S. involvement in Iraq "may be comparable to Bosnia," where U.S. and European peacekeepers are nearing their eighth year of deployment.
He and the ranking member of the committee, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), predicted narrow approval of the $87 billion Iraq reconstruction request. But both said the administration had to improve its plan for turning over power to Iraqis, and Lugar added that it should make "a genuine attempt" to persuade competent allies, including "Germany, France, Russia and China" to join the peacekeeping effort.
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, said yesterday he was "inclined not to" vote for the $87 billion request and criticized Bush for "haphazard, shotgun, shoot-from-the-hip diplomacy" on Iraq.
Divisions over Iraq policy reflect larger ideological differences within Bush's national security team. Cheney and Rumsfeld have pursued more hard-line, unilateralist approaches to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea; Powell favors dialogue and greater efforts to include allies.
Last week, with rising concerns about the direction and public perception of the Iraq reconstruction project, the White House put Rice in charge of the effort, possibly at the expense of the Defense Department, which had been running the show.
Biden, responding to news that Bush had asked Rice to unify the differing views on Iraq, said Bush had to "take charge, settle this dispute. Let your secretary of defense, state, and your vice president know, 'This is my policy. Any one of you that divert from the policy is off the team.' "
Kerry, who voted for the congressional war resolution before the invasion, stepped up his attacks on Bush's decision to go to war in the first place. He said some of the administration's pre-war assertions about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction "misled America."
"They told us there were aerial vehicles" to deliver Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. "They weren't there," he said, speaking on ABC's "This Week." "They told us they had a 45-minute deployment period for weapons of mass destruction. That wasn't true. They told us they were on the road to nuclear weaponization. That was not true."
"He ought to apologize to the people of this country because what they've done now is launch a PR campaign instead of a real policy," Kerry said. "We need to go to the United Nations more humbly, more directly, more honestly, solicit help in a way that brings the United Nations into this effort, or you are going to continue to see bomb after bomb after bomb."
Kerry also derided the administration's effort to portray current efforts in Iraq as international in nature. "We have a fraudulent coalition, and I use the word 'fraud.' It's a few people here, a few people there. It's basically the British, and, most fundamentally, the United States of America."
"This administration has alienated people all across this planet," he said. "They have, in fact, made America less safe."
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