“Are You Trying to Tie My Hands and Feet?” Bush Conflicts with the Congress

The US White House and the Congress are fighting a mental war over the War Resolution against Iraq.

The President George W. Bush showed his uneasy mind on the 1st about the Congress’s controlling the Presidential right to fight a war, “We will continue discussing with the Congress; however, I do not want to accept the resolution that ties my hand.”

▽Different opinions even in the Republican Party=After the White House accepted the first draft of the resolution that gave the plenary power to fight a war to the President Bush on the 19th, the Senate leader of the Democratic Party, Senator Thomas Dashley affirmed, “I will not give the President the plenary power to start a war in any circumstances.” What is more, Senator Chuck Hagel and his colleagues of the Republican Party asked the President Bush on the 30th of last month to form a military alliance to attack Iraq with support of the international society.

The Chairman of the Senate Diplomacy Committee, Jorjif Biden (Democratic) and Senator Richard Luke (Republican) submitted a revised resolution that declared the object for attacking Iraq was to destroy massive killing weapons not to change the regime, and limited the attacking area to Iraq. In response to this, the White House complaining, “The revised resolution was retreated even further than the resolution by the UN Security Council.”

The President Bush called the Congressmen of the House International Relations Committee to the White House and discussed the content of the resolution on the 1st.

Congressman Howard Burman, who attended the meeting, said that he wished to open the content of the resolution to public by the 2nd, and it would be put to a vote next week.

▽”Wish to assassinate Hussein”=The White House Spokesman Arry Flisher suggested during a briefing on the 1st that America whishes to assassinate Hussein by saying, “It will be a lot cheaper to get a one-way ticket needed for Sadam Hussein of Iraq to flee, or to get a bullet for Iraqi people to exclude him than the cost of war.”

He explained after his sudden speaking created problems, “It means our ultimate goal is to change the regime in Iraq.”

Ki-Heung Han eligius@donga.com