Nevada delegation likely to support resolution

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2002 | 9:36 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's congressional delegation agreed with President Bush Monday that Iraq is an imminent threat and must be the next focus of the U.S. military in the war on terror.

The four lawmakers are likely to support a resolution that authorizes Bush to attack, which Congress could approve this week.

Of all the nations that harbor terrorists, Iraq poses the biggest threat because of its weapons of mass destruction; blatant flaunting of United Nations rules; history of hostility toward the United States; and its "homicidal dictator," Bush said.

"Saddam Hussein is a dangerous individual," Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said. "He's dangerous to the United States. He is dangerous to the world, and now the American people know why."

Gibbons, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Bush also has damning, classified evidence chronicling Iraq's weapons programs that he could not share with the public in his Monday address.

Hussein has "new and unique" missile capabilities and is months away from developing nuclear weapons, Gibbons said.

"We cannot let him have that capability," Gibbons said.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said Bush's speech was nearly the same as a pitch he made to Berkley and 13 other lawmakers he invited to the White House last week. She said Bush is clearly preoccupied with the fact that Hussein could develop a deliverable nuclear weapon.

"Once that happens he will be even more dangerous than he is today," Berkley said. "That is not to say that there aren't other dangerous dictators out there. But Iraq is the most likely to destabilize the entire Middle East and to destabilize the entire world."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., had been weighing a Bush-backed congressional resolution and one introduced by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., that limited Bush to destroying Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. But Lugar this week has decided to back the Bush resolution. Reid said he may still support minor changes, including a resolution sunset clause.

But Reid, an avowed "hawk" as opposed to a "dove," seems ready to back Bush.

"It's a problem because the guy who is running Iraq is such a goofball, a madman," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. "We have to do something about it one way or another."

Nevada lawmakers said conflict with Iraq will not sidetrack the broader war on terror.

"It's a crucial part of it," Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said.

Ensign said someone who objected to a "pre-emptive" war with Iraq approached him last week at a breakfast for Nevadans hosted every Thursday by Reid and Ensign in the Capitol. Ensign asked the man if the United States should wait until Iraq uses a deadly weapon to kill 30,000 Americans, and the man replied, "yes."

"That kind of thinking to me is just crazy," Ensign said. "We know the potential (for an Iraqi attack) is there."