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Bush asks Congress authorization to use military force against Iraq
U.S. President George W. Bush asked the Congress to grant him authority to use military force against Iraq, warning that Washington and its allies would act if the United Nations fails to resolve the standoff over disarmament. "That'll be part of the resolution, the authorization to use force," Bush said Thursday. Bush, meeting in the Oval Office with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, said congressional leaders would get the draft language shortly. He downplayed Iraq's offer made last Monday to accept UN weapons inspections without conditions, saying that Saddam Hussein was "not going to fool anybody". Congress acting will lend a little impetus to the Security Council acting â if only to avoid having the U.S. act without any U.N. backing. If that happens this time, it'll also happen next time... In comments that seemed directed at the United Nations, Bush added: "If the United Nations Security Council won't deal with the problem, the United States and some of our friends will." Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-09-19 |
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