White House opposes changing Iraq war resolution
Source: Reuters
(Adds McConnell comments, paragraphs 8-10)) By Steve Holland WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The White House expressed opposition on Friday to any attempt by the U.S. Senate to revise the 2002 resolution that President George W. Bush used to go to war in Iraq. Bush appeared to be on a collision course with Senate Democrats who said they were working on a proposal to rewrite the 2002 resolution to create a narrower, binding authority that would restrict the military's role and prompt U.S. troops to start pulling out. White House spokesman Tony Fratto, asked by reporters if Bush would oppose any effort to revoke the 2002 authorization, said, "Of course we would." Even though Saddam Hussein is long gone and the promised weapons of mass destruction were never found, Fratto said the 2002 resolution still had relevance in enforcing U.N. Security Council resolutions on Iraq. "I think the war authorization spoke to, and certainly envisioned subsequent U.N. Security Council resolutions, and the authorization is very clear in that the president has the authority to strictly enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions," Fratto said. The 2002 resolution, approved at a time when American tensions were still running high from the Sept. 11 attacks, gave Bush fairly wide latitude. It authorized him to use the U.S. armed forces "as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said Senate Democrats were trying to "unring a bell." "You can't unring a bell. That was the vote we had in 2002, it didn't have an expiration date on it," he said in a conference call with reporters. "It's a murky area, as to to whether in effect Congress could micromanage the war," McConnell added. "I think no court would want to arbitrate that dispute. I would think no administration would be likely to pay attention to it." Fratto said it was unclear whether Democrats would go forward with the proposal because they appeared divided on Iraq. "I think what's clear is that there's a lot of, you know, shifting sands in the Democrats' positions right now. It's hard to say exactly what their position is," Fratto said. NARROWER MISSION Bush has made clear he will fight hard for a $100 billion proposal to fund U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, with some Democrats pondering an attempt to force a change in policy by putting restrictions on how the money is spent. After Senate Republicans halted a nonbinding resolution opposing Bush's troop buildup in Iraq, the Democrats are determined to challenge Bush anew by replacing the 2002 authorization of force in Iraq with a narrower mission statement for U.S. troops, congressional aides said on Thursday. The newly defined U.S. mission would involve denying terrorists a safe haven in Iraq, training Iraqi troops and helping Iraqis protect their own borders, said one Democratic aide. The proposal would be binding and a draft calls for U.S. troops not involved in the narrower mission to come home by early 2008, he said. There are 139,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Lawmakers would rely on the U.S. military to tell them how many would be needed for the narrower mission, the aides said. The proposal is being drafted by Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and their staffs -- with the blessing of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. (Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell)
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