Daschle Says U.S. War Effort Lacks 'Clear Direction'

Reuters via Yahoo ^ | Thu Feb 28, 1:12 PM ET | Reuters

[B-bone]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, in remarks immediately assailed by Republicans, said on Thursday there seems to be "expansion without at least a clear direction" in the administration's war on terrorism.

"Before we make commitments in resources I think we need to have a clear understanding of what the direction would be," the South Dakota Democrat told reporters, reflecting a growing Democratic concern.

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, promptly replied: "How dare Senator Daschle criticize President (George W.) Bush while we are fighting our war on terrorism, especially when we have troops in the field?

"He should not be trying to divide our country while we are united," Lott said.

Daschle said the war to date has been successful and that he does not want to "second guess" the president. But he also said the administration needed to better explain where it was headed.

"I don't think the success has been overstated, but the continued success, I think, is still somewhat in doubt," Daschle said.

His comments came a day after a number of congressional Democrats opened fire on the Defense Department's $379 billion budget request and what they described as its opened-ended war on terrorism.

'BLANK CHECKS'

At a congressional hearing, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, told Defense Department officials they should not expect "blank checks to be written" for the war effort without a clearer understanding of the administration's objectives and goals beyond Afghanistan.

"We seem to be good at developing entrance strategies, not so good at developing exit strategies," Byrd told Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

Byrd and other Democrats questioned and challenged an expanding anti-terrorism agenda in other nations certain to run up the U.S. defense bill and the federal deficit.

Daschle said on Thursday, "I have said all along, we need to ask the tough questions. There may be support in general for the president's request for defense, but somebody's got to ask tough questions. And no one does a better job of that than Senator Byrd."

"I think there is expansion without at least a clear direction to date," Daschle said. "But we will continue to ask the questions required to better understand that direction."

Daschle, like other Democrats, has backed Bush's response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, and again praised these efforts.

But he added, "Whether we continue to succeed depends on whether we get the right answers to the questions Senator Byrd was proposing yesterday."

The Senate majority leader added, "We've got to find Osama bin Laden, and we've got to find other key leaders of the al Qaeda network, or we will have failed."

"I think that it's critical that we keep the pressure on. We do the job that this country is committed to doing," Daschle said. "We're not safe until we have broken the back of al Qaeda. And we haven't done that yet."

[PhiKapMom]

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[MeekOneGOP]

Don't forget to ping me to it. . .
:o)