- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After
months of solid support for President Bush's war on terrorism, the top
Senate Democrat on Thursday questioned White House plans to expand the
war and said Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden must be found for the
effort to succeed.
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- "I don't think the success has been overstated,
but the continued success, I think, is still somewhat in doubt," said
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who added his voice
to a small group of lawmakers expressing concern at the widening military
effort.
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- "We've got to find Osama bin Laden, and we've got
to find other key leaders of the al Qaeda network, or we will have failed,"
Daschle said.
-
- "I think that it's critical that we keep the pressure
on. We do the job that this country is committed to doing. But we're not
safe until we have broken the back of al Qaeda. And we haven't done that
yet," he added.
-
- Washington blames bin Laden and his al Qaeda network
for the Sept. 11 strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
-
- Republicans immediately lashed out at Daschle.
-
- "How dare Senator Daschle criticize President Bush
while we are fighting our war on terrorism," said Senate Minority
Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi.
-
- Appearing on the PBS television program "NewsHour
with Jim Lehrer," Lott expressed concern that Daschle's comments had
shattered the spirit of unity and bipartisanship that emerged after the
Sept. 11 attacks.
-
- "Any crack in this sole show of support for our
commander-in-chief while we're involved in this war I think is not helpful,"
Lott said.
-
- "I think when you're at war and when you've got
lives on the line, and there are people who would be happy to see us begin
to break apart and not continue to be supportive of this effort, I think
that undermines our ability to hold our coalitions together," Lott
continued.
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- DIVISIVE COMMENTS
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- Daschle's "divisive comments have the effect of
giving aid and comfort to our enemies by allowing them to exploit divisions
in our country," said Rep. Thomas Davis, of Virginia, who chairs the
Republicans' House of Representatives campaign committee.
-
- Daschle's office in a statement said the senator, who
spoke to a group of reporters, did not criticize Bush "or his campaign
against terrorism."
-
- The White House offered a milder rebuke.
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- "This is about much more than Osama bin Laden --
this is about the entire terrorist network," said White House spokesman
Ari Fleischer, adding that "the president hopes that the Congress
will continue its bipartisan spirit and support the defense budget he sent
up there."
-
- In a jab at Daschle, widely viewed as preparing for a
presidential run, Fleischer said: "Some people may want to run for
president one day, but the president's going to continue to always work
productively ... with members of the Congress."
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- Daschle's remarks came after Robert Byrd of West Virginia,
the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, complained
on Wednesday of the "extraordinary price tag for the initial foray
into a war that, as the president pointed out, has only begun, appears
to have no boundaries and has no definable point of victory."
-
- The Pentagon estimated the war in Afghanistan would cost
$30 billion this fiscal year, which ends in September.
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- "We seem to be good at developing entrance strategies,
not so good at developing exit strategies," Byrd told Deputy Defense
Secretary Paul Wolfowitz at a hearing.
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- House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri
complained that the administration in recent weeks had skipped consultations
with Congress on the administration's plans to train and help equip forces
in the republic of Georgia or on its consideration of offering military
aid to Yemen to combat terrorist groups.
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