The House majority leader, Representative Dick Armey, warned on Thursday that an unprovoked attack against Iraq would violate international law and undermine world support for US President George W. Bush's goal of ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The remarks by Armey, a Texas Republican who is retiring this year, are the most prominent sign of congressional unease that the administration is moving rapidly toward a war against Iraq, and were especially striking coming from a leading conservative and a staunch Bush ally.
Armey's comments came on a day when Saddam took to the airwaves in Baghdad for a fiery diatribe against a possible invasion, calling the US and its allies "the forces of evil."
"If we try to act against Saddam Hussein, as obnoxious as he is, without proper provocation, we will not have the support of other nation states who might do so," Armey told reporters in Des Moines during a campaign swing for a House candidate.
"I don't believe that America will justifiably make an unprovoked attack on another nation," Armey said. "It would not be consistent with what we have been as a nation or what we should be as a nation."
"My own view would be to let him bluster, let him rant and rave all he wants and let that be a matter between he and his own country," Armey said in response to a reporter's question. "As long as he behaves himself within his own borders, we should not be addressing any attack or resources against him."
Bush has repeatedly stated that the administration's goal is to overthrow Saddam, in large part because of the threat Iraq's suspected programs to acquire chemical, biological and nuclear weapons pose to its neighbors as well as to US and allied forces in the region. Armey did not directly address the issue of what the US should do if it was determined that Iraq was continuing to build weapons of mass destruction.
Bush has carefully sidestepped the question of how and when the administration would accomplish its goal of ousting Saddam even as senior military commanders have presented options to the president and his top aides that range from invading Iraq with as many as 250,000 troops, to one involving 80,000 to 100,000 troops swooping in on Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, and other military centers in hopes of quickly collapsing the government.
Bush pledged this week that he would consult with Congress before ordering any invasion, but he stopped short of promising to ask for a vote authorizing an attack.
In Baghdad, Saddam organized a large military parade on Thursday to celebrate the anniversary of the end of the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war, and then delivered a television speech in which he warned "the forces of evil" not to attack Iraq.
Saddam has refused to deal with UN weapons inspectors since they left nearly four years ago and Iraq remains under UN sanctions imposed at the time it invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Iraq recently sent letters inviting UN officials and members of Congress to visit Iraq for talks, but lawmakers and UN officials rebuked the offer saying it was an attempt to circumvent the existing conditions for the return of inspectors.
A White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said Saddam's speech did not alter Bush's view of Iraq.
"The Iraqi government needs to comply with the responsibilities it agreed to at the end of the Gulf War," McClellan said.
The White House had little reaction to Armey's comments. "The president has not decided on a particular course of action and is keeping all his options open," McClellan said. "Beyond that, it's speculating about hypotheticals."
Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have both said recently that the return of international inspectors to Iraq would not be enough to eliminate Saddam's hidden arsenal. Rumsfeld said Iraq's actions to conceal weapons laboratories underground and put them on mobile trailers might make inspections useless.
On Thursday, Armey said that the failure to resume international arms inspections inside Iraq would be insufficient grounds for war.
"In my estimation, it is not enough reason to go in, that he does not allow weapons inspections," Armey said. "What if the French decided they wanted to inspect American military facilities?"
Armey said he had supported the Persian Gulf war. But in this case, he said that basic principles of international law apply, and that attacking Iraq without a specific provocation would violate those norms.
"He has a right to hold dominion within his own national boundaries, as obnoxious as he is and as comical as he can be," Armey said. "He is what we in Texas know as a blowhard, he can't help himself."
Other prominent Republicans, including senators Richard Lugar and Chuck Hagel, have said recently that the conditions for a pre-emptive strike against Iraq are not yet in place. They and other lawmakers from both parties have recommended other steps first, including stricter enforcement of the no-flight zones.
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