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Rep. Stark blasts Bush on Iraq war
Washington -- In one of the most brutal critiques of the administration's policy toward Iraq by a member of Congress, East Bay Rep. Pete Stark said President Bush would be responsible for "an act of terror" by launching a massive bombing campaign to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"I think unleashing 3,000 smart bombs against the city of Baghdad in the first several days of the war . . . to me, if those were unleashed against the San Francisco Bay Area, I would call that an act of extreme terrorism," said Stark, a Democrat from Fremont.

Stark, a peace activist in the 1960s and a 30-year veteran in Congress, is known for his sharp and sometimes careless tongue. He told the Oakland Tribune Monday that if the president initiates the war, "it's blood on Bush's hands."

His latest criticism is based on published reports that U.S. forces plan to fire as many as 3,000 laser- and satellite-guided missiles on Iraq in the first days of a military campaign.

"You can't send in 3,000 bombs without some of them going awry, in spite of the military's claims about accuracy," Stark said in an interview Tuesday with The Chronicle. "If they get two-thirds accuracy that means that 1,000 bombs will explode (off target) inside a city of 6 million people. To me, that's a terrorist act."

Also Tuesday, Republican leaders were sharply critical of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle for saying in a speech Monday that he was "saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war."

Rallying to Daschle's defense, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, repeated what Republican Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio said two weeks after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor: "Criticism in time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government."

"In expressing his views, Tom Daschle is being patriotic," Pelosi said. "The Republican leaders are being partisan."

Bad ol' pautisan wepublicans!
Posted by: John Phares 2003-03-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=11513