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George W. Bush
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WASHINGTON
, October 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. President George
Bush expressed deep reservations Tuesday about an alternative
congressional resolution authorizing force against Iraq, as he summoned
House members to the White House to spur progress.
"I
don't want to get a resolution which ties my hands," Bush told
reporters after meeting with lawmakers on terrorism insurance.
Bush
demanded a resolution that "sends a clear signal that this country
is determined to disarm Iraq and thereby bring peace to the world,"
reported the AP.
Congress,
while generally supporting the president's campaign against Iraq, has
haggled with the White House over the wording of the resolution.
Foreign
Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, and senior committee member
Sen. Richard Lugar, on Monday circulated an alternative proposal that
they said "helps the president attract strong bipartisan support in
Congress."
Their
draft resolution would focus on authorizing the use of force against
Iraq as opposed to the entire region and make clear that dismantling
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction would be the primary reason for using
force.
Asked
about the Lugar-Biden compromise, Bush said he did not want a
congressional resolution weaker than one passed by lawmakers in 1998.
"My
question is, what's changed? Why would Congress want to weaken a
resolution?" Bush said. Saddam, he said, is "more of a threat
four years later."
"All
of us recognize that the military option is not the first choice,"
Bush said, "but disarming this man is, because he (poses) a true
threat to the United States."
Bush
also asked the United Nations Security Council to approve a single
"strong, new resolution" aimed at disarming Iraq, said the
AFP.
Saying
that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the past agreed to abide by UN
resolutions only to flout them, Bush said: "There needs to be a
strong, new resolution for us not to fall into the same trap."
Arguing
that Iraq's biological and chemical weapons stockpiles and its attempt
to attain a nuclear capability are an immediate threat to U.S. security
interests, the Bush administration is urging both Congress and the U.N.
Security Council to approve resolutions authorizing the use of military
force if Iraq does not abide by past demands to disarm.
"We
believe that one resolution with consequences in it is the way to
achieve Iraqi compliance," Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman
said Monday night in a speech to the Chicago Council on Foreign
Relations.
If
Iraq feels the U.N. Security Council is divided, Grossman said, or that
"nothing will happen, then nothing happens in Iraq."
U.S.
Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld said the fact that Iraq continues to
fire on U.S. and British warplanes shows that Iraq's claimed willingness
to open the country to weapons inspectors was "patently
false.".
