The Bush administration has apparently come to the conclusion that it should give up on enlisting allies for the war against Iraq, and is moving towards single-handed action against Saddam Hussein. As a legal justification for such an attack, the American government is going to use links between Iraq and Osama Bin Ladin’s al-Qaeda group.
Bypassing the United Nations
By claiming a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda, U.S. President George W. Bush would be freeing himself from two major obstacles blocking his ability to attack Iraq. The first and foremost - it would mean the U.S. does not need an international consensus or a United Nations mandate, as it would have to get for intervening in a matter that does not touch upon it directly.
In the 1991 Kuwait intervention, for example, the U.S. had to get international agreement that Saddam Hussein was an aggressor, and only after diplomacy had been given a go could the American troops attack. However, if the U.S. claims Iraq is directly involved with al-Qaeda and with the September 11 attacks, then it is in effect already at war with Iraq and has a right to defend itself, with no need for building an international coalition or for getting United Nations approval.
President Bush has tried repeatedly to build up such a coalition against his father’s old adversary, Saddam Hussein, with little success. The Arab allies of the 1991 war openly oppose a new American war against Iraq, and even the European allies are refusing to support such action. Over the past weeks, the U.S. administration has openly moved away from its coalition building efforts, and there is now a broad consensus in all levels of government in Washington that the U.S. should launch an attack against Saddam Hussein on its own.
Bypassing the American Congress
Another advantage that the Iraq-al-Qaeda link has to offer is that it would remove from President Bush the need to get approval from his Congress. The American constitution limits the power of the president, and he cannot declare wars single-handedly. In order to declare a war against Iraq, President Bush would have to go to Congress and get approval from the hundreds of elected representatives there, many of which do not share Bush’s hostility towards Saddam.
Linking Iraq to al-Qaeda relives Bush of the need to get permission to attack Iraq from his Congress. Immediately following the September 11 attacks, the U.S. President was authorized by the American Senate to pursue and attack any person or group linked with the attacks. The Bush administration apparently wants to take this mandate to its furthest limits, claiming that as Iraq is linked to al-Qaeda it is also linked to the attacks, and therefore the President already has permission to take action against it, without need for specific approval from his reluctant Congress.
As his attorneys debate the legitimacy of the new strategy, President Bush is inching ever closer to what he must see as completing the work of his father – the forceful removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power, and the restructuring of the Iraqi state on pro-Western lines. (www.albawaba.com)
