WASHINGTON, 9 September 2003 — President Bush’s speech to the nation Sunday was notable for three vital foreign policy questions he did not address: Whether he still expects to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, what is he willing to offer France, Germany and other allies in exchange for their help there, whether the United States can prevent the collapse of the Middle East peace process.
Instead, Bush sought to portray the difficulties America faces in occupying Iraq as another phase in the war on terrorism that his administration has been waging since Sept. 11, 2001.
“The surest way to avoid attacks on our own people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans,’’ Bush said in nationally televised speech, his first since May 1, when he declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq.
“We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today, so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities.’’ There is little doubt that Congress will approve the $87 billion Bush requested Sunday to pay for the war in Iraq and accelerate the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. Lawmakers from both parties said the cost of a US failure in Iraq would be too high to contemplate.
The question is whether Democrats in Congress will try to attach conditions on the funding, or delay giving Bush the money until he gets a UN resolution that puts Iraq under an international mandate — and brings help from other nations in providing security in Iraq and paying the reconstruction bills. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, said he would resist any effort to condition US spending in Iraq to contributions from other countries.
“It’s in our national security to do this,’’ Kolbe said.
In March, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz testified before Congress that the Iraqi reconstruction effort would quickly begin to pay for itself through oil sales. A postwar assessment of Iraq’s decrepit infrastructure, compounded by looting, sabotage and the lack of security, have quashed such hopes. Immediately after Bush’s speech, Sen. Joseph Biden Jr., D-Del., suggested that America’s wealthiest citizens be asked to postpone the tax cut they are scheduled to receive in order to pay for the Iraq occupation. Congress has been demanding for some time that the president announce a figure for the cost of the Iraq operation.
Of the $87 billion request, Kolbe said, “It’s a high price tag, but I think it’s a realistic price tag.’’ He said Congress would take a “hard look’’ at the request, and that he would push to make sure that reconstruction contracts are competitively bid.
‘’We’re going to ask questions about how it’s going to spent.”
In his speech, Bush noted that the United States wants to expand the international role in reconstructing Iraq and providing security. US military commanders have identified the internationalization of the Iraqi occupation force as key to defusing anti-American sentiment.
But several countries, including India, have said they would not contribute troops unless Iraq was being run under a UN mandate.
‘’We are committed to expanding international cooperation in the reconstruction and security of Iraq, just as we are in Afghanistan,” Bush said. The president said he had directed Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to introduce a new Security Council resolution that would authorize the creation of a multinational force in Iraq.
However, France and Germany rejected the draft resolution the Bush administration put forward last week, saying it did not sufficiently address handing over authority to an Iraqi government. The president did not indicate what, if anything, he was willing to do to change their mind.
Powell, in television appearances Sunday, indicated a willingness to negotiate with France and Germany, but called on them to study the US proposal and make specific suggestions before rejecting it out of hand.
‘’We want to move to sovereignty as quickly as possible,” Powell said Sunday on NBC’s ‘’Meet the Press.” ‘’But to think that somehow you could, tomorrow, wake up and say, ‘OK, fine, give sovereignty back to the Iraqi people,’ before you have a constitution, before you’ve had elections, before you’ve had the institution of democracy put in place, is not a reasonable statement to make,’’ Powell said.
Bush said the United States is proposing that the Iraqi Governing Council come up with its own timetable for adopting a constitution and holding elections.
However, Bush gave no ground — and no specifics — on any compromise with the Europeans who opposed the unilateral US decision to use force in Iraq. Instead, he simply said other nations have a duty to help. “We cannot let past differences interfere with present duties,’’ Bush said. Referring to the bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad, he said, ‘’Terrorists in Iraq have attacked representatives of the civilized world, and opposing them must be the cause of the civilized world. Members of the United Nations now have an opportunity, and the responsibility, to assume a broader role in assuring that Iraq becomes a free and democratic nation.”
The Democratic presidential candidates said the cost of the war was too high and the administration’s exit strategy too vague.
‘’Tonight, the president offered glowing rhetoric but few specifics on how we will erase the mismanagement of this administration in Iraq,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. ‘’The president must now do what he should have done before the war began and go to the United Nations and our allies to build a true international coalition to share the burden of securing and rebuilding Iraq despite the administration’s abysmal record of doing just that.”
