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IRAQ WAR | ANTIWAR MOVEMENT
Ohio congressman leading the charge to avoid
Iraq war
Washington
If the groups opposing U.S. intervention in Iraq are playing an
outside game -- putting external pressure on members of Congress -- then Rep.
Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, is orchestrating the inside game, working to convince
his colleagues that U.S. action against the Baghdad regime “is neither
desirable nor inevitable.” It’s a new role for the one-time “boy
mayor” of Cleveland -- he was elected to that post more than two decades
ago at age 31.
In mid-July, as Bush administration rhetoric targeting Iraq
increased, the 56-year-old Kucinich was among the first members of Congress to
oppose an attack. He urged the U.S. to “work in coordination with the
international community to contain Iraq, and not proceed unilaterally with an
unprovoked war.”
Three weeks later he drafted a letter signed by 74 other House
Democrats urging the president to seek Congressional approval before launching
an attack.
Most recently, Kucinich has launched a series of
congressional-hearing-like “briefings” to make the case against
intervention. Speakers at these events have included former U.N. weapons
inspector Scott Ritter and one-time U.N. assistant general secretary Dennis
Halliday. The goal of the briefings, said Kucinich, is to “provide an
opportunity for the American people to hear an alternative view.”
From his modest perch as ranking member of the House Subcommittee
on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations, Kucinich
does not possess the clout of his House leadership colleagues nor the
reputation of a keen legislative strategist.
And for all his earnestness and energy, legislative acumen may be
what opponents of U.S. policy need most as Congress prepares to consider a Bush
administration-backed resolution authorizing the president to attack Iraq.
-- Joe Feuerherd
National Catholic Reporter, September 20,
2002
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