- Both houses of Congress have voted to approve a resolution
authorizing President Bush to use military force "as he determines
to be necessary and appropriate" against Iraq. Yesterday 296 of 435
House members voted for the resolution, followed today by 77 of 100 senat
ors.
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- Analysts characterized Congress' overwhelming support
for the Bush Administration's war plans as a foregone conclusion given
the lackluster House and Senate debates, which few lawmakers attended.
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- Now Bush will concentrate on winning support from the
United Nations, where members of the Security Council have expressed reservations
on delivering a military ultimatum to Saddam Hussein.
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- The Bush Administration is seeking a U.N. resolution
ordering Saddam to immediately dismantle his chemical and biological weapons
programs, as well as sites that could be used to pursue nuclear capability.
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- Russia and France, which have sizable oil contracts with
Iraq, have said they will not support an Iraqi "regime change"
if U.N. weapons inspectors are allowed to return. China, which is facing
a skyrocketing rate of oil consumption, has also voiced a similar stance.
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- Britain's Observer reported that Security Council members
could acquiesce to Bush's invasion plans due to the fear of being cut out
of the "spoils" after Saddam is toppled. Iraq holds 11 percent
of the world's oil, and with American interests at the helm of this vast
reserve, the price per barrel would surely decline.
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- That would spell disaster for a fledgling Russian economic
recovery. Russia is currently accelerating its oil production during this
period of an oil price spike, which has historically accompanied recessions
such as the one the U.S. is now experiencing.
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- French oil firm Total Fina Elf has a significant interest
in Iraqi oil fields, and it appears to be only a matter of time before
Bush's apparent U.N. adversaries fall into line.
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- Also reportedly on the table as far as post-Saddam options
go is a plan to carve Iraq into three entities. One section of the plan,
which is said to be the brainchild of Vice President Dick Cheney and Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, would become part of Kuwait, another
piece would go to the Kurds, and the largest, most oil-rich chunk would
become part of Jordan, an Arab state allied with U.S. interests.
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- Saddam has indicated he will let the U.N. resume inspections
of facilities capable of producing and storing weapons of mass destruction.
But the issue of whether inspectors will have access to his very large
presidential palace compounds remains unresolved.
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- The Bush Administration has been adamant about inspectors
gaining unannounced access to the palaces, and Saddam has been just as
adamant about keeping these sites off-limits without giving notice of an
inspection.
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- The congressional nod toward war with Iraq came amid
several key international developments, campaigns for November congressional
elections where Iraq had become the center stage issue, and a volatile
week on Wall Street.
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- The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 247 points at
Thursday's close after the House vote and on Friday soared 316 points.
NASDAQ followed suit finishing the week up 6.2 percent.
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- On Wednesday the Dow and NASDAQ dropped to five- and
six-year lows respectively. The signal clearly taken from this rally says
Wall Street can smell a recession-ending boost from cheap, post-Saddam
Iraqi oil available to the U.S. market.
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- Also this week, a U.S. Marine was killed and another
wounded in Kuwait by gun men allegedly linked to Al Qaeda. The next day,
Marines opened fire on the Kuwaiti occupants of a pickup truck, one of
whom was said to have aimed a gun at U.S. forces. And in the southern Philippines,
a U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded when a bomb exploded outside
a bar.
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- These incidents lent credence to the administration's
rapid march toward war, since the volume of troops now forward deployed
in the Middle East and Asia for this amount of time is sure to draw local
ire in regions unfriendly to U.S. political and economic interests.
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- As the House vote progressed on Oct. 10, several congressmen
acknowledged on CNN and Fox News that had the resolution been put to a
vote after the November elections, it might well have been defeated. Members
of Congress said that they did not want to risk being labeled soft on terrorism
and Saddam if they opposed the measure.
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