The Nation

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I wonder how Barbra Streisand feels.

On September 29, at the fancy Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, she headlined a $6 million fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. With her on the stage was House minority leader Richard Gephardt. As she sang a politics-drenched rewrite of "The Way We Were" ("Mis'ries/seems that's all that fills the news/blame the fellas in the White House/for the way we are"), she interjected comments bashing George W. Bush and the Republicans. At one point she commented, "I find bringing the country to the brink of war unilaterally five weeks before an election questionable--and very, very frightening." This remark echoed a confidential memo a Streisand aide sent Gephardt a few days earlier. In that note, Streisand pressed "Democrats to get off the defensive and go on the offensive." The memo also said, "Many of the industries run by big Republican donors and insiders clearly have much to gain if we go to war against Iraq. Barbra urges the Democrats to publicly convey this message to the American people."

That's hardly the message Gephardt pushed once he left Babs-land and returned to Washington. Three days after the concert, he brokered a deal with the White House that guaranteed passage of a resolution authorizing Bush to launch war on Iraq as "he determines to be necessary and appropriate" in order to "defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq" and to enforce United Nations resolutions. The Gephardt-backed measure was less of a blank check than the one Bush had sent to Congress. The differences, though, meant little. Under the negotiated resolution, Bush will have to report to Congress that "diplomatic and other peaceful means alone" were not sufficient to thwart Saddam Hussein and enforce UN resolutions. But Bush does not have to issue such a report until two days after he initiates an attack. Gephardt (and the GOP House leaders) are telling Bush, shoot whenever you like, explain later. And once bombs are falling and US troops are in harm's way, how many members of Congress are going to challenge Bush's finding, if they consider it unpersuasive, and then attempt to de-authorize a wartime president? ("I demand you withdraw 100,000 troops and recall the bombers because you misread the last Iraqi communique on the inspections process!")

After British Prime Minister (and George W. Bush sidekick) Tony Blair issued a 55-page white paper on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction several days ago, The Washington Post slapped a story on the front page headlined, "Blair: Iraq Can Deploy Quickly." The subhead read, "Report Presents New Details On Banned Arms." The New York Times similarly noted, "Blair Says Iraqis Could Launch Chemical Weapons in Minutes." As a counterbalance of sorts, its subhead said, "Sees Nuclear Weapon Capability in 1 to 5 Years."

Both articles conveyed the impression that Iraq is an immediate threat and that Blair supports Bush's dash to war--which in a way he does. But the "dossier" Blair unveiled--based on British intelligence work--made the case for renewed weapons inspections, not war. In the foreword to the report, Blair states, "The case I make is that the UN Resolutions demanding [Saddam Hussein] stops his WMD programme are being flouted; that since the inspectors left four years ago he has continued with this programme, that the inspectors must be allowed back in to do their job properly." If Saddam blocks the return of the inspectors or "makes it impossible for them to do their job," Blair declares, "the international community will have to act." But Blair, Bush's closest ally in the campaign against Saddam, is clearly saying an attempt to revive the weapons inspection program should occur before the United States and Britain wage war against Iraq. That is not how the media characterized his presentation. And it is not the White House position.

Most of Blair's white paper was devoted to detailing threat indicators--noting Saddam's long history of developing and seeking chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and his use of chemical weapons against the Kurds and Iran in the 1980s. It warns that Iraq possesses a useable chemical and biological weapons capability--without being specific about these weapons--and that it can "deploy" (which is not the same as "launch") some within 45 minutes. This may only mean that Iraq can quickly disseminate mustard gas on a battlefield--which would hardly be a surprise. Or a reason to preemptively attack.

The first 2002 election campaign in which George W. Bush's desire to attack Iraq became a major issue did not involve Republicans and Democrats. It was not even held in the United States. But it can still be said that Bush – and his proposed war--came out on the losing end of the contest.

German voters on Sunday gave a narrow, yet clear, mandate to the red-green coalition of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The dramatic come-from-behind win for Schröder's Social Democratic Party (SPD) and its coalition partner, the Green Party, followed a campaign in which the chancellor promised to withhold German support for a US-led war against Iraq.

"Under my leadership, Germany will not participate in military action," declared Schröder, in a blunt statement that distinguished the chancellor from Edmund Stoiber, the standard bearer of the conservative Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union (CDU-CSU) alliance that sought to oust the four-year-old SPD-Green government.