PSSSST...DON'T TELL SADDAM, BUT DO WE HAVE YOUR PERMISSION TO LAUNCH? :

Senator hits Bush's 'pre-emptive' plan (Joyce Howard Price, June 3, 2002, Washington Times)

A key Senate Democrat said yesterday that she's disturbed by President Bush's call for "pre-emptive military strikes" against nations or groups that threaten this country.

"I think this is a predicate for an attack on Iraq, and I'm very concerned about it," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "I think it would be a terrible mistake for the United States unilaterally to attack Iraq and to do so without any congressional authorization," she said yesterday on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

Mrs. Feinstein was responding to remarks by Mr. Bush Saturday in a commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., when he said "unbalanced dictators" must be stopped before they develop weapons of mass destruction or provide them to terrorist groups. The president said the United States must "take the battle to the enemy, disrupt its plans and confront the worst threats before they emerge."

On CNN, Mrs. Feinstein said such a move would go beyond the authority Congress granted Mr. Bush after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

If we launch a ground invasion of Iraq, the Senator is absolutely right that the administration needs Congressional approval. But for any other type of pre-emptive strike it would be deranged to seek approval first. Are we going to have Senators debate whether we launch a cruise missile attack on al Qaeda positions in Pakistan? Or suppose we know where one of Saddam's plants is where they're working on a weapon of mass destruction--do we go ask Ms Feinstein before we blow the place up? Posted by Orrin Judd at June 3, 2002 1:59 PM