Congressman Bill Shuster told reporters Tuesday afternoon he will vote to give President Bush the authority to use military force against Iraq\u2019s Saddam Hussein.
\n\u201cSaddam cannot be trusted,\u201d said the 9th District Congressman. \u201cHe has evaded inspection, lied, cheated, moved around weapons, used chemical weapons against Iran and his own people and has tortured children.\u201d
\nShuster talked to reporters in a conference call news conference from his Washington office during the debate in Congress over giving the president the authorization he asked for in a Monday night televised address to the nation.
\n\u201cThe president was very clear,\u201d said the freshman congressman. \u201cHe laid out his case. We should pass this resolution and, if necessary, use force to protect national security.\u201d
\nThe president has a big majority of the Pennsylvania delegation, Republican and Democrats, supporting the passage of the resolution.
\nFifteen of the state\u2019s 23 lawmakers, two senators and 21 House members, have said they planned to support the plan to take military action in order to disarm Saddam Hussein of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and, if possible, depose the Iraqi leader.
\nOnly four Pennsylvania legislators said there were staunchly opposed to the plan.
\nSenator Arlen Specter and Representative Jim Greenwood of Bucks County, two key GOP lawmakers, are among three undecided lawmakers who said they would hold off their final decision until the debate is completed.
\nWhile admitting the U.S. does not know when Saddam \u201cwill be able to build a nuke,\u201d Shuster said, \u201cI don\u2019t think we should take a chance.\u201d
\n\u201cI have seen the evidence. He has a history of backing these extreme groups,\u201d said Shuster. \u201cIt does not make any sense to sit back and allow him to become any stronger.\u201d
\nThe congressman predicted the resolution will have \u201coverwhelming\u201d support in the House and will pass the Senate with a \u201csignificant majority.\u201d
\nSome lawmakers have rejected the president\u2019s appeal, saying the White House should wait until it gets support from the United Nations.
\nShuster said while United Nations support is desirable, if the U.S. must go it alone with only limited coalition support, so be it.
\nHe said he has had input from constituents and he said backing the president is \u201cgetting general overall support.\u201d
\nAfter a full day of speeches on Tuesday, the House was on course to vote by Thursday on the resolution.
\nBush urged Congress to give him the authority he wants, telling a Tennessee audience Tuesday \u201cthat the full force and fury of the United States military will be unleashed\u201d should he decide to use force against Iraq.
\nHopes of a quick resolution in the Senate faded Tuesday when West Virginia Democratic Senator Robert Byrd made clear that he would use parliamentary delaying tactics to push debate into next week..
\nByrd, an unyielding defender of the Senate\u2019s constitutional rights, said the resolution was a \u201cblank check\u201d that \u201ccedes the decision-making power of the Congress under the Constitution to declare war.\u201d He suggested the issue be put off until after the November election.
\n(The AP contributed to this report.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Congressman Bill Shuster told reporters Tuesday afternoon he will vote to give President Bush the authority to use military force against Iraq\u2019s Saddam Hussein. \u201cSaddam cannot be trusted,\u201d said the 9th District Congressman. \u201cHe has evaded inspection, lied, cheated, moved around weapons, used chemical weapons against Iran and his own people and has tortured children.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}