Bush seeks approval for military initiative

WASHINGTON -- President Bush asked Congress Thursday for authority to use military force to disarm and overthrow Iraq's Saddam Hussein, saying the United States will take action on its own if the U.N. Security Council balks.\nThe president was sending to Capitol Hill his proposed wording for a resolution, a late draft of which would, according to White House officials, give him permission to use "all means he determines to be appropriate, including military" to deal with Saddam.\n"That will be part of the resolution--authorization to use force. If you want to keep the peace, you've got to have the authorization to use force," Bush told reporters in the Oval Office.\nHe immediately began trying to build support for the resolution that he wants Congress to approve before lawmakers go home to campaign for the Nov. 5 elections.\nBush met with nine Democratic and Republican lawmakers who emerged predicting bipartisan support for the commander in chief. "I think we have no choice but to have the strongest support possible for the president's efforts here," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash.\nBut the president also stressed he is not on the verge of declaring war, said Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y.\n"The most important word I heard inside today from the president was the word 'if.' He made it repeatedly clear that this resolution is not intended as a declaration of war, it is not intended as an immediate prior step to aggression," said McHugh.\nBush spoke to reporters after meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell on his difficult diplomatic effort to draft a U.N. Security Council resolution against Iraq. The administration has to overcome strong reservations by Russia and France, which have veto power in the Security Council.\n"The United Nations Security Council must work with the United States and other concerned parties to send a clear message that we expect Saddam to disarm," Bush said.\n"And if the United Nations Security Council won't deal with the problem, the United States and some of our friends will," he declared.\nThe gap between Russian and American viewpoints was underlined Thursday in comments by Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. Upon arriving at the Pentagon to meet with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Ivanov said he believed U.N. weapons inspectors will succeed in settling the question of whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.\n"Being experienced in that sort of business--both Americans and Russians--I think we can easily establish (whether) there exist or not weapons of mass destruction technology," Ivanov said. Rumsfeld, who stood by silently as Ivanov spoke, has said repeatedly that inspections cannot be 100 percent reliable because Iraq has a long history of deceiving inspectors.\nAnd Bush lashed out at the notion that Iraq is in talks with the United Nations about resuming inspections: "There are no negotiations to be held with Iraq. ... I don't trust Iraq and neither should the free world."\nHe declined to name any of the allies he's counting on for support in the event of war, saying only that "time will tell."\nAs Bush spoke, White House advisers were behind the scenes telephoning congressional leaders with notice that Bush's proposal was on its way to Capitol Hill.\nFollowing his meeting with Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Bush lobbied the small group of lawmakers--something Rice, too, planned to do with other groups later Thursday.\nBush said he wanted the legislature to give him not only the power to make war with Saddam, but also an explicit restatement of U.S. policy that Saddam must be overthrown.\n"That's the policy of the government," Bush said, adding that he wanted Congress' approval before lawmakers adjourn to campaign for the Nov. 5 elections.\nBut on Capitol Hill Thursday, a group of House Democrats condemned the move toward military action, with Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, calling it "unjustified, unwarranted and illegal."\nRep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said she was introducing a resolution with 20 cosponsors calling on the United States to work with the U.N. to carry out weapons inspections in Iraq. "A preemptive, unilateral first strike would set a terrible international precedent," she said.\nRumsfeld told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that Congress must act before the Security Council does.\n"Delaying a vote in the Congress would send a message that the U.S. may be unprepared to take a stand, just as we are asking the international community to take a stand and as we are cautioning the Iraqi regime to consider its options," Rumsfeld said.\nThe Iraq resolution was expected to win overwhelming support from both parties in the House and Senate, possibly within two weeks. Although some prominent Democrats have called for caution, both Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., said they supported Bush on the issue.\n"We want to make sure that whatever we do, we make the right decision," said Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas.\nWhile U.N. officials in New York prepared for the inspectors' return, U.S. and British officials began working on a new U.N. resolution aimed at authorizing use of force should Baghdad fail to comply with Security Council resolutions.\nWestern diplomats said the U.S.-British draft likely would include new instructions for weapons inspectors and a timetable for disarmament that would be tighter than one laid out in an existing resolution passed in December 1999.\nBritain, which helps the United States patrol the no-fly zone over southern Iraq, has been the staunchest public ally for Bush's threats of war. Rumsfeld said several other U.S. allies have said privately they would support a military strike against Iraq, but he declined to say which countries or how many.\n"There are a number of countries afraid of Saddam Hussein" and therefore reluctant to let their cooperation be known publicly, Rumsfeld said.