Abstract

The Growing Disquiet

The author comments on the reluctance of many members of the U.S. Congress to support President George W. Bush's request for $87 billion to pay for the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq. The fact that 137 members of Congress--twelve in the Senate and 125 in the House--voted against the appropriation suggests a growing disquiet about the folly of the Administration's pre-emptive war and the dangerous failings of its postwar planning. Although Bush's threat to use his veto if the House goes along with the Senate's loan provision virtually guarantees it won't be included in the bill's final version, the House's overwhelming (but nonbinding) endorsement of the idea reflects the worries of legislators who, amid a struggling economy and rising US casualties, are being asked hard questions by their constituents. Meanwhile, opposition to the Administration's policies continues in the international community. The Administration's response to these developments has been twofold: On the one hand, it denies there are any problems, and, on the other, it moves behind the scenes to address them. There are, as we have said before, no good solutions to the current mess in Iraq. We can only hope that as the disquiet on the home front grows, the Administration will be compelled to cede increasing authority to the UN and to a sovereign Iraqi government as quickly as possible, and that with the discrediting of the Administration's policies, voters next year will send Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld and Cheney to join the ranks of the unemployed.