DeLay backs effort to oust Saddam
Harsh words pepper speech Republican will give in Houston today
By ALAN BERNSTEIN
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
Brushing aside the doubts expressed by some of his fellow conservatives, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay is throwing his full support behind President Bush's goal of ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
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"Defeating Saddam Hussein is a defining measure of whether we will wage the war on terrorism fully and effectively," the Republican leader says.
That remark, along with further explanation of DeLay's steadfast position, is in the prepared text for his luncheon speech today to the Houston Forum, a non-partisan civic group.
Like the president, DeLay does not make an outright call for a military invasion of Iraq, saying instead that a "regime change" is needed there.
But with the White House openly discussing the possibility of an invasion, DeLay's prepared text is loaded with attack words. He calls Saddam an evil, vile dictator of a terrorist state and "a central power in the Axis of Evil."
The pointed rhetoric from DeLay, a Sugar Land resident who represents part of the suburban Houston area, contrasts with caution expressed by others, such as DeLay's fellow House GOP leader from Texas, Dick Armey.
Armey, the House majority leader who is retiring from Congress, said recently that attacking Iraq without provocation would violate international law.
Similar doubts have been expressed by Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser in the administration of the president's father, and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
DeLay, however, paints the issue as a moral struggle without wiggle room.
"The only choice is between victory and defeat. And let's be clear, we must choose victory, a victory that cannot be secured at the bargaining table," DeLay says. "Knowing all this, we must favor the hard path of action over the hollow comfort of complacency."
Bush said last week that disagreement about a military move against Iraq is a "healthy debate" and that he will consider all opinions.
DeLay says Saddam should be removed because he used chemical weapons against Iran, invaded Kuwait and, after defeat in the resulting Persian Gulf War, broke promises to drop his country's development of weapons of mass destruction.
"Despite weeks of feverish hand wringing over the supposed missing body of evidence against the dictator ruling Iraq, the case is self-evident," he says.
Portions of the congressman's prepared remarks were supplied to the Chronicle by his staff on Tuesday.
The staff's official announcement of today's speech asserts that after taking a starring role on domestic issues, DeLay has become a leader on foreign affairs.
He has sided with Israel in its violent struggle with the Palestinians and has opposed relaxing the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. |
