The Hindu : Muster global force for Iraq, Bush told

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2003

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International

Muster global force for Iraq, Bush told

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON JUNE 30 . Cutting across party lines, senior law-makers are urging the Bush administration to spare no effort in putting together a global force for Iraq even if it means working with members of the NATO that were solidly opposed to the invasion of that country.

At the same time, at least one top Republican Senator, John McCain, has said that there is increasing disquiet in his home state because the administration has not been forthcoming in explaining the plans for Iraq. The rumblings on Capitol Hill have a lot to do with the now near-daily reports of American soldiers getting killed in Iraq, especially in the so-called post-liberation phase of operations.

Further, members of the Congress are getting extremely apprehensive that the time-frame for the involvement of the U.S. is going to be much longer than anticipated by the Republican administration.

"We need to involve the world, the globe, because we're talking about freedom not just for the U.S., not just for Iraq, but indeed freedom for people around the world," said the Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist. "It's going to take a long-term commitment, and I think we in the U.S. would welcome the participation by many other nations around the world."

Most of the countries represented in NATO, particularly the core in Western Europe, were against the American plan for the invasion. But the Bush administration constantly said it had the cooperation or endorsement from `many' in the international community. "There is among my constituents tremendous support for the President and what our men and women in the military did, but there's a growing sense of unease. I think if they are told what exactly lies ahead, they will continue to support it," Mr. McCain said. He also said the Senate had too little information on even whether or not more American or other troops were needed for Iraq. From among the Democrats, the ranking member in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jospeh Biden, stressed that it was critical for the U.S. to deal with NATO.

"I want to see French, German, I want to see Turkish patches on people's arms sitting on the street corners, standing there in Iraq. That's one way to communicate to the Iraqi people that we are not there as occupiers. The international community is there as liberators," Mr. Biden said.

The Democrat from Delaware has said the Secretary-General of NATO has told him that the alliance was ready to come in "large numbers" if the go-ahead is given by Washington. But the Bush administration, from the very beginning, has refused to buy the argument — even from its own top military commanders — that a much larger force would be needed in the post conflict situation, to maintain order and in the reconstruction phase.

Prior to the start of the war, the then Army Chief, Eric Shinseki, told the Congress that hundreds of thousands of troops would be required, an estimation that was brushed off by the Deputy Secretary of Defence, Paul Wolfowitz. "Shinseki was right," said Mr. Biden.

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