- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Already
under fire from abroad, the Bush administration was criticized across the
political spectrum at home on Sunday for an Iraq policy in disarray, with
top advisers seemingly at odds.
-
- The latest apparent split came as Secretary of State
Colin Powell seemed to differ with Vice President Dick Cheney over the
need to get U.N. inspectors back into Baghdad, and President Bush came
under attack for failing to get his team in line.
-
- "There have been nuanced disagreements from day
one ... and they should be brought under control," said former Secretary
of State Alexander Haig, a Republican. "He's got to lead, he's got
to unify, he's got to ... start speaking with one voice."
-
- Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations under President Bill Clinton, said the Powell comments, coming
after Cheney last week twice made high-profile pitches for action against
Iraq, pointed out the administration's inability to articulate a policy.
The U.S. threats against Iraq have sparked widespread opposition overseas.
-
- "It's more of a summer of public disarray by the
administration," Holbrooke told "Fox News Sunday."
-
- Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, who served
under the president's father, former President George Bush, told NBC's
"Meet the Press," "There is a disconnect here and I don't
understand it."
-
- The new chorus of criticism on the Sunday television
talk shows surfaced after another week of intense debate over whether the
United States should act on Bush's stated desire to oust Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein because he is rebuilding weapons of mass destruction.
-
- Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, said Cheney
had provided no evidence to support pre-emptive action.
-
- "They are telling wrongly ... that Iraq is reproducing
weapons of mass destruction," Aziz told CNN. "That's not true.
We are ready to prove it."
-
- In pressing for action against Baghdad, the White House
has brushed off unease among European allies, Muslim states and broader
world opinion. While polls show Americans continue to back an attack on
Iraq, support has fallen in recent months.
-
- Twice last week, Cheney took the lead in making the case
for a pre-emptive military strike, arguing that the return of weapons inspectors
should not be the key objective.
-
- Powell said in a BBC interview released on Sunday that
getting U.N. inspectors into Iraq "as a first step" was a priority,
stating, "The president has been clear that he believes weapons inspectors
should return."
-
- The arms experts left Iraq in December 1998 on the eve
of a U.S.-British bombing raid and have not been allowed to return. White
House spokesman Scott McClellan, speaking as Bush returned to Washington
from a month-long Texas vacation, insisted there was no difference between
Powell's comments and the Bush administration position that demanded "unfettered"
inspections of Iraq's capability for producing chemical, biological and
nuclear weapons.
-
- "It's what we've been saying all along," McClellan
said.
-
- CHORUS OF CONCERN
-
- But the administration plan for Iraq has been anything
but clear, as evidenced by the rash of conflicting comments and unrelenting
chorus of concern expressed at home and abroad.
-
- Haig said Powell's British television comments were simply
"a little conscious ambiguity ... to try to shore up an important
ally in the process of getting ready to do what, unfortunately, we're going
to have to do."
-
- A long string of current and past officials in both Republican
and Democratic administrations have weighed in recently, urging more consultation
both at the United Nations and on Capitol Hill before any action is taken.
-
- Like many, Holbrooke argued the administration had to
approach the U.N. Security Council for another resolution for action against
Iraq -- whether the United States won or not.
-
- "They're undermining their own case, first by the
disarray ... and, secondly, by their failure to recognize that they must
seek international approval," Holbrooke said.
-
- Haig, a former NATO supreme commander, said Washington
should simply "inform the United Nations in a very formal way that
we intend to enforce those resolutions in the face of repeated violations."
-
- Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican and Bush's 2000
presidential campaign rival, wrote in Time magazine that he was unconvinced
"that the large U.S. force contemplated for the operation is the best
or only option" to oust Saddam.
-
- But Bush "should seek congressional support soon
-- before staging large numbers of troops in advance of hostilities."
-
- Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of the Democratic National
Committee, told CBS' "Face the Nation" the president needed to
better make his case at home.
-
- "People are very perplexed about where we are. I
think when the president comes back this week he needs to talk to the country
... to the members of Congress."
-
- Republican National Committee Chairman Marc Racicot said
differing views were the result of open debate.
-
- "There's no mystery here," Racicot said. "It's
just exactly what it appears to be."
|
