- WASHINGTON - Breaking
bipartisan
solidarity on Capitol Hill, Rep. Jim McDermott yesterday criticized the
U.S.-led attacks on military targets in Afghanistan, questioning whether
President Bush had "thought this action out completely or fully
examined
America's cause."
-
- The Seattle Democrat issued a two-paragraph statement
that suggested Bush and his military advisers reacted too quickly to the
Sept. 11 suicide jet attacks against the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
The statement was the first public criticism of the retaliatory strikes
by a federal lawmaker.
-
- As U.S. and British jets dropped bombs on anti-aircraft
batteries, airports and other targets controlled by the ruling Taliban
government for a second day, the seven-term Democrat drew a parallel with
the 1991 bombardment of Iraq.
-
- "The destruction of the infrastructure did not work
in Iraq a decade ago," McDermott said in the statement. "This
sounds an awful lot like Iraq. Saddam Hussein is still in power! It is
Iraq's citizenry, not Saddam, which continues to suffer the consequences
of those air and missile strikes during the Gulf War and the sanctions
we subsequently imposed against that nation."
-
- White House officials did not return calls seeking
comment.
The rest of the state's congressional delegation expressed support for
the bombings.
-
- Criticism of a military action during a time of
heightened
nationalism might come back to haunt most politicians, but McDermott, an
outspoken liberal whose district is primarily in the city of Seattle, has
one of the safest seats in Congress.
-
- He was overwhelmingly reelected without GOP opposition
in 2000. As an indication of how liberal the district is, the Green Party
candidate got nearly 20 percent of the vote.
-
- This week's airstrikes drew public support perhaps not
seen since World War II for an American military action.
-
- An ABC News-Washington Post poll said 94 percent of
Americans
supported the strikes against Taliban targets in Afghanistan. The poll
of 506 randomly selected adults, interviewed by telephone Sunday night,
had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
-
- In an interview yesterday, the congressman said he had
not received significant public feedback during the Columbus Day holiday
and did not consider the public reaction before taking his stand.
-
- "I simply raise the question of whether this is
the thing to do," McDermott said.
-
- "To simply say that whatever the president wants
to do is right is not to use your own critical faculties. And the people
of the 7th District elected me to represent them and to think on their
behalf on the basis of what I know."
-
- McDermott, who voted against authorizing then-President
Bush to use force in the Persian Gulf War a decade ago, last month voted
in favor of authorizing the younger Bush to respond to attacks that left
nearly 6,000 dead. The only member of Congress to oppose the measure was
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.
-
- "He's a hypocrite," said Chris Vance,
Washington
state Republican Party chairman. "I can understand the left standing
up against past military actions in Vietnam and Panama and even the
Gulf.
-
- "But here, the president is striking back against
people who physically attacked America, and even then Jim McDermott doesn't
want to use military force."
-
- McDermott was interviewed on KIRO radio yesterday
afternoon,
prompting what host Dori Monson said was the most immediate negative
response
he'd experienced on his show.
-
- Monson said sentiment was running 20-1 against the
statement.
But he noted that several callers who voted for McDermott said they were
supporting the congressman.
-
- Hollis Giammatteo, a strong McDermott supporter, said
the remarks were exactly what she would expect from the congressman.
-
- "I'm relieved that there's a dissenting voice among
the citizenry right now," she said. "Patriotism becomes dangerous
when it doesn't allow all points of view." The bombing, said Tim
McBeth,
who tends to vote Democratic, "is something we need to do. But this
country is built on free speech. If McDermott wants to say those things,
he should be able to."
-
- McDermott said that he and many other members of Congress
considered voting with Lee last month but wanted to support the president
and give him a free hand to act.
-
- "In this case, I couldn't bring myself to vote no.
He has to have the power to do something, and at that time it wasn't clear
what was going on," McDermott said. At the time, he said Bush should
act slowly and thoughtfully.
-
- Yesterday, McDermott criticized the speed with which
the president acted and his decision to notify only a handful of
congressional
leaders.
-
- "I miss the point of needing to strike now. He has
not made that clear to anybody, either in his public statements or anything
I've heard in the Congress," he said.
-
- In his written statement, McDermott took issue with what
he perceived as a lack of planning.
-
- "I am not so sure that we have fully developed a
comprehensive strategic plan. It has been less than a month since the
terrorist
attacks against our country. A scant four weeks to plan and implement an
operation like this doesn't seem like a very long time to me."
-
- McDermott did not address the differences between the
extensive air-defense system and the large number of troops that defended
Iraq during the Gulf War and the Taliban's limited military
infrastructure.
-
- He cautioned against celebrating too soon any measure
of success from the air campaign.
-
- "It smacks of certain arrogance we can ill afford
at this crucial juncture in our nation's history," his statement said.
"I'm not so sure President Bush, members of his administration or
the military have thought this action out completely or fully examined
America's cause."
-
- Seattle Times staff reporter John Zebrowski contributed
to this report.
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