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White House vs Congress

President Clinton's decision to send cruise missiles to bomb an intelligence center in Baghdad won wide support from Congress, but it also reopened a long-running debate over White House consultations with Congress. The operations raised questions about war-making authority because it was Clinton's first unilateral use of U.S. force in a time of multi-lateral operations from Somalia to Bosnia.

Clinton ordered the June 26, 1993 attack in response to what he called "compelling evidence" that Iraq had attempted to assassinate former President George Bush when he visited Kuwait in April. Sixteen suspects in the alleged attack, several of whom are said to have confessed to involvement in a plot to kill Bush, are facing charges in Kuwait. In the five-minute attack, two Navy ships, the destroyer USS Peterson and the cruiser USS Chancellorsville in the Persian Gulf, launched 23 Tomahawk cruise missiles. Iraq reported that three of the missiles went astray, killing or wounding eight civilians.

When President Clinton stated that the attack against President Bush was an attack against the United States and against all Americans--and that such an action against the nation could not go unanswered--most lawmakers endorsed that sentiment. Even some liberals saluted the president for the restraint involved in the attack, stating that if he had bombed during the day--killing many people--they would have been outraged, but the president acted with commendable restraint.

However, liberal Representative Ron Dellums (Democrat, California) was one who opposed the attack. He stated that he hoped the President would have entered in a new era by presenting this situation first to the international community, and then drumming up allied and public support in the process. In answer to this, the administration maintained that it had the right to act unilaterally under provisions of the United Nations charter that permit nations to act in s...

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White House vs Congress. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:13, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1681496.html