Thomas Daschle: “on Tuesday, I spoke briefly about my views on President Clinton's decision to retaliate against Iraq for its unprovoked…”

“on Tuesday, I spoke briefly about my views on President Clinton's decision to retaliate against Iraq for its unprovoked, unjustified, and brutal attack on the civilian population of Irbil, a city in northern Iraq. At that time, I also indicated I planned to introduce a resolution condemning Saddam Hussein's behavior and expressing the Senate's support for the President's actions. I must say I never dreamed it would take this long and be this difficult to arrive at a simple resolution in support of the actions taken earlier this week. For several days now, we have been attempting to resolve issues relating to language and have been thwarted and frustrated in that effort for a lot of reasons, in large measure because many of my colleagues on the other side wish not to laud the President or find any way with which to praise the President's actions. In fact, for the last several hours the issue has been, do we even use the word ``President'' in the resolution? There was an adamant feeling on the part of many on the other side that we could not use the word ``President,'' and so you will not find that word used as a result of the requirements by many of my colleagues on the Republican side.”