Democrat favourite keeps up war blitz

By ANDREW GUMBEL and RUPERT CORNWELL in Washington

Despite the huge policy bonus handed to United States President George W. Bush by the capture of Saddam Hussein, his most likely Democratic challenger for the Presidency kept up his criticism of the Iraq war yesterday, arguing that the seizure of the former dictator "has not made America safer".

In a keynote foreign policy speech in Los Angeles, Howard Dean insisted that his hostility to the war has not changed. The Bush Administration had launched the conflict "in the wrong way at the wrong time".

Its massive cost - US$166 billion ($256 billion) and counting - might have been less if more foreign countries had been persuaded to take part.

Instead, the former Vermont Governor told the Pacific Council on International Policy that the latest events in Iraq represented "a new opportunity to move ahead, not a guarantee".

"The capture of Saddam does not end our difficulties," Dean said, as he underlined the "continuing challenge and the continuing need, to repair our alliances and regain global support for American goals".

He said Bush had not explained how Saddam's capture would lead to greater security, nor how it would halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Dean's forthright criticism of the Iraq war, even before the invasion, has fuelled his remarkable surge to the head of the Democratic field, although it also reflects his readiness to take on a President regarded by activist Democrats with little short of loathing.

That feeling is unlikely to have changed, even after the seizure of the deposed dictator, with all its symbolic closing of an era in the Middle East.

But the development could yet throw a big spanner into the battle for the Democratic nomination.

Major and sustained US successes in rebuilding Iraq may blunt what will be one of his most powerful arguments, were the former Vermont governor to win the nomination to challenge Bush next year.



Some analysts believe Dean's appeal might also be dented in the primaries, which get under way in Iowa and New Hampshire next month. The beneficiaries, they argue, would be candidates who supported the war.

Joe Lieberman, running mate of Al Gore in 2000 and the most hawkish Democrat in the field, lashed out at Dean. "If Howard Dean had had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power, not in prison, and the world would be a more dangerous place," said the Connecticut senator.

Until the galvanising shock of Gore's endorsement of Dean last week, the Lieberman campaign had been languishing. His aides claim that "betrayal" and the vindication provided by Saddam's capture will persuade Democratic primary voters to take a second look at their man.

Though he avoided praise for Bush yesterday, Dean was forced to utter some kind words for the President immediately after the news arrived from Iraq. "This is a great day of pride in the American military, a great day for the Iraqi people ... I think President Bush deserves a day of celebration," he said.

But Dean aides insisted the thrust of the major foreign policy speech he gave in California yesterday had not been changed by the dramatic events in Iraq. "The issue wasn't capturing Saddam," said Ivo Daalder, a former senior official on the Clinton National Security Council and a foreign policy adviser to Dean. "The issue is whether this was the right war at the right time and that critique still stands."

Daalder is one of several former Clinton foreign policy specialists enlisted by the Dean campaign to make up for his perceived lack of international experience.

Privately, though, every Democratic candidate admits the capture of Saddam is a real boost for the White House.

A USA Today poll carried out immediately after news broke of Saddam's capture showed opposition among Americans to the war had dropped to the lowest level since the fall of Baghdad in early April.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq