WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday that he thought it was "unlikely" that the United States would go to war with Iraq for any reason other than the regime's possession of weapons of mass destruction.
But he said that President George W. Bush was still asking Congress for the authority to use military force even if Saddam Hussein was disarmed of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
"The president wants the authority to use force to carry out these resolutions where he believes force is the appropriate way to get implementation," Powell said.
Bush has asked Congress for the authority to use the military to enforce a range of U.N. Security Council resolutions against Saddam, including his continued human rights abuses, his illicit foreign trade and his continued refusal to pay reparations to Kuwait and account for Gulf War prisoners.
As they prepared a final draft of the war resolution, Senate Democrats told Powell that they felt they were being asked to provide an excessively blank check to the president to declare war on Iraq for reasons they consider unworthy of U.S. military intervention.
"Part of our dilemma is that we are being asked to pass a resolution before the president has made a decision to go to war. It doesn't mean we shouldn't do it, but it is unusual," said the chairman of the committee, Joseph Biden, D-Del.
"Is the U.S. prepared to go to war against Iraq if it engages in illicit trade outside the U.N. Oil for Food program?" asked Senator Paul Sarbanes, D-Md. "Are we prepared to go to war to make sure Iraq accounts for all Gulf War military personnel?"
Powell responded: "That's the way the resolution is currently worded, but we all know, I think, that the major problem, the effect the president has focused on, the danger to us and the world is the weapons of mass destruction."
Biden also said he favored a resolution that would only grant the president authority to use force after U.N. Security Council efforts failed. This would address a concern among some senators that the president may try to circumvent the U.N. altogether once he has Congressional authorization, Biden said.
In his remarks, Powell also said that action against Iraq would not mark a new foreign policy of preemption but rather would use a tool that has always been available to presidents.
"It's not a new doctrine. It's been around as long as warfare has been around. It's the elevation of one of the tools we have already, not one that pushes out the doctrines we already have," Powell said.
Powell also said the United States would be fully committed to staying in Iraq until a "representative" government was installed that would not use weapons of mass destruction.
