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Why so many Americans don't support attacking Iraq
By ILANA MERCER - Globe and Mail

Thursday, September 19, 2002 � Page A23

By agreeing to allow the unconditional return of weapons inspectors, Iraq has done well to expose -- sadly, not halt -- the Bush administration's unstoppable agenda. This gesture by Iraq was not so much a "stunning turnabout," but a culmination of a plain and reasonable attempt by an economically desperate Iraq to tie the return of inspectors to the lifting of sanctions. It failed.

Washington's predictably disgruntled response confirms that George W. Bush doesn't want Saddam Hussein to roll over, but wants, very plainly, to sock it to him. In the process of promising to wage war in the name of cherished American values, President Bush has forgotten a pesky little detail: The U.S. government is beholden to the Constitution, which prohibits the President from declaring war (something he has, to all intents and purposes, already done by ordering bombing sorties over Iraq). It is Congress that declares a war; the President wages it.

Rather than go the constitutional route, Mr. Bush began by declaring his commitment to topple the regime in Baghdad, believing somehow that such a prerogative was a policy privilege he commandeered on being elected. The unconstitutional implications of his audacious imperialism never really hit home with Americans.

posted by A Curmudgeon 2:09 PM