Inouye calls for details on rebuilding Iraq

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Sen. Dan Inouye yesterday said the White House should immediately identify the countries that intend to help the United States patrol and rebuild Iraq.

"I think the time has come to tell us who they are and how many troops will be involved," said Inouye, ranking member of the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee that oversees military spending.

The Bush administration should also disclose how much money is expected from Iraqi oil sales and whether that money could help offset the mounting costs of the U.S. presence in Iraq, the Hawai'i Democrat said.

President Bush has asked Congress for an additional $87 billion in war and reconstruction costs, much more than anticipated even a few weeks ago. The request has renewed calls in Congress for the president to defend his foreign policy in Iraq.

Bush has said the United States would have international help in Iraq, but several countries have balked at getting involved without a broader role for the United Nations.

Inouye, who opposed giving Bush authority to use military force in Iraq, also said the issue of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction appears to have been left out of the administration's recent assessments of the war.

Bush cited Iraq's alleged weapons cache as one of the central reasons for a pre-emptive military strike, but the United States has yet to find chemical or biological weapons in Iraq since toppling Saddam Hussein.

"Someday," Inouye said, "we'll find out what the real rationale was for going to war."

In the House, meanwhile, Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, has asked leaders of the House Armed Services Committee, on which he serves, to hold hearings on Iraq and the effect on the U.S. armed forces. Abercrombie, like Inouye, said he would fight for money to make sure U.S. troops have the equipment and supplies necessary to complete their mission.

But Abercrombie drew parallels to Vietnam and cautioned that the United States should not use support for U.S. troops as "a mask for failure of a political policy."

"This is a disaster in every respect," said Abercrombie, who opposed the war in Iraq.

"How exactly does this advance the security of the United States?" he asked. "How does it advance the history of the United States in the Middle East?"