Iraq Is Defiant as G.O.P. Leader Opposes Attack
nytimes.com
[ A curiously "biased" headline as Dick Armey backs off a bit on the United War Drummers of America front. If it was Tom DeLay, I might be more impressed, but what the heck. ]
The House majority leader, Representative Dick Armey, warned today that an unprovoked attack against Iraq would violate international law and undermine world support for President Bush's goal of ousting Saddam Hussein.
The remarks by Mr. Armey, a Texas Republican who is retiring this year, are the most prominent sign of Congressional unease that the administration is moving rapidly toward a war against Iraq and were especially striking coming from a leading conservative and a staunch Bush ally.
Mr. Armey's comments came on a day when Mr. Hussein, celebrating the anniversary of the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war with a military parade, delivered a television speech in which he warned "the forces of evil" not to attack Iraq.
Mr. Armey, speaking to reporters in Des Moines during a campaign swing for a House candidate, said, "If we try to act against Saddam Hussein, as obnoxious as he is, without proper provocation, we will not have the support of other nation states who might do so."
"I don't believe that America will justifiably make an unprovoked attack on another nation," he said. "It would not be consistent with what we have been as a nation or what we should be as a nation."
In response to a reporter's question, he said: "My own view would be to let him bluster, let him rant and rave all he wants and let that be a matter between he and his own country. As long as he behaves himself within his own borders, we should not be addressing any attack or resources against him." . . . |
