George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

Ambassador here in Washington did the same thing. This is but one more example that
the Iraqi government is not interested in direct communications designed to settle the
Persian Gulf situation.
But this was a -this was a - a total stiff-arm. This is a total rebuff.
The letter was not rude; the letter was direct. And the letter did exactly what I think is
necessary at this stage. But to refuse to even pass a letter along seems to me to be just one
more manifestation of the stonewalling that has taken place. [fn 73]
The gods were laughing.
The United Nations Security Council resolution, with its approaching artificial deadline
which Bush had demanded, plus the failure of the Baker-Tariq Aziz meeting, on January
9 became the tools of the White House in obtaining a Congressional resolution for war.
Bush was careful to stress his view that he could wage war without the Congress, but that
he was magnanimously letting them express their support for him by approving such a
motion. On this same day, the Kremlin despatched troop contingents to seven Soviet
republics where nationalist movements were gaining ground.
The Congressional debate provided many eloquent pleas, generally from Democrats, for
delaying military action in order to save Americans from useless slaughter. But these
pleas were almost always vitiated by a failure to recognize the equal claim to humanity of
the Iraqi population; the Democrats who urged continued reliance on sanctions were in
effect calling for an equal or greater genocide prolonged over time. One exception was
Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon, who voted against the Bush war resolution and the
Democrats' sanctions resolution on the grounds that he opposed the entire military
deployment in the Middle East; Hatfield argued for a peaceful settlement using
diplomacy alone. This Republican defection in the name of high principle may have
attracted the darts of Bush's vindictiveness; in May a report on Hatfield's personal
finances appearing in the Capitol Hill weekly Roll Call alleged that a former
Congressman and a California businessman had forgiven $133,000 in loans to Hatfield
over an 8-year period. This information was somehow leaked from Senate records. [fn
74] The obvious intent of this story was to make it look as if the loan forgiveness had
been used to buy influence. Hatfield's actions were not in violation of senate rules at the
time these loans were forgiven.
Bush's war resolution passed the Senate by the narrow margin of 52-47; Sen. Cranston,
who was absent because of illness, would have come to the senate and voted against the
war if this would have changed the outcome. This vote reflects a deep ambivalence in the
ruling elite about Bush's bellicose line, which was not as popular in US ruling circles as it
was in London. Bush's margin of victory was provided by a group of southern Bush
Democrats (Gore, Graham, Breaux, Robb, Shelby). In the House, a similar Bush war
resolution passed by 250 to 183. Many Congressmen from blue-collar districts being
pounded by the economic depression reflected the disillusionment of their constituents by
voting against Bush and the war. But the resistance was not enough.