21 January 2003
Senator Kennedy Calls Iraq "Wrong War at the Wrong Time"
(Congressional Report, Tuesday, January 21, 2003 (270) Senator Edward M. Kennedy (Democrat-Massachusetts) said January 21, in remarks at the National Press Club, that "an assault against Iraq -- especially without broad support -- will not advance the defeat of al Qaeda but undermine it. "I continue to be convinced that this is the wrong war at the wrong time," Kennedy said. "The threat from Iraq is not imminent, and it will distract America from the two more immediate threats to our security - the clear and present danger of terrorism and the crisis with North Korea." A war against Iraq, he said, would "feed a rising tide of anti-Americanism overseas" and strain diplomatic ties. "It will antagonize critical allies and crack the global coalition that came together after September 11. "It will strain our diplomatic, military and intelligence resources and reduce our ability to root out terrorists abroad and at home," said Kennedy. "It could quickly spin out of control and engulf other nations in the region too... "Surely, we can have effective relationships with other nations without adopting a chip-on-the-shoulder foreign policy, a my-way-or-the-highway policy that makes all our goals in the world more difficult to achieve." Kennedy said U.N. weapons inspectors need more time to discover what kind of weapons Saddam Hussein may be amassing in Iraq. He said President Bush had displayed "impressive leadership" after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but he suggested the administration was embarking on "a new unilateralism" that would prove dangerous. (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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