October 7, 2002 - The Hartford Courant: RPCV Congressman Chris Shays Sees Need For Pre-emptive Action In Iraq

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Headlines: Peace Corps Headlines - 2002: 10 October 2002 Peace Corps Headlines: October 7, 2002 - The Hartford Courant: RPCV Congressman Chris Shays Sees Need For Pre-emptive Action In Iraq

By Admin1 (admin) on Monday, October 07, 2002 - 7:12 pm: Edit Post

RPCV Congressman Chris Shays Sees Need For Pre-emptive Action In Iraq





Read and comment on this story from the the Hartford Courant on RPCV Congressman Chris Shays who is the Connecticut congressional delegation's most ardent supporter of strong action against Iraq. And, Shays insists, the U.S. has to be ready to combat other, similar threats in Libya, Syria and any place where enemies could have weapons of mass destruction.

Shays has followed a lonely path to this point, one that is often hard to understand until you find yourself an elected representative voting on behalf of 600,000 people whose lives could depend on your decision.

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Iraq Meets His Criteria*

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Iraq Meets His Criteria

Congressman Sees Need For Pre-emptive Action In Region

October 7, 2002
By DAVID LIGHTMAN, Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON -- The most personal, agonizing decisions for politicians are the ones that conflict with their religion, their upbringing, the personal beliefs they have held for a lifetime.

Catholic lawmakers often are torn by whether to ignore the church teachings on abortion and vote for the abortion funding a majority of their constituency wants. Christian Scientists find themselves casting votes to help people gain access to health care; Quakers agonize over whether to support strong military action.

It's a wrenching journey, one that never really finds a comfortable endpoint. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th District, 56, has traveled this road. A conscientious objector during Vietnam, he is today the Connecticut congressional delegation's most ardent supporter of strong action against Iraq.

And, Shays insists, the U.S. has to be ready to combat other, similar threats in Libya, Syria and any place where enemies could have weapons of mass destruction.

Shays has followed a lonely path to this point, one that is often hard to understand until you find yourself an elected representative voting on behalf of 600,000 people whose lives could depend on your decision.

"These are very difficult, complicated issues. All of us on this see through the glass darkly," said House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo. "I wish I knew enough to know the absolute right thing to do."

Shays' story is about the evolution of a representative, the coming of age of someone who during Vietnam objected because he saw the conflict as a "politician's war. We tied our hands and the enemy kicked our butt."

Shays was committed to service; he and his wife would work in the Peace Corps in Fiji from 1968 to 1970. When he ran for public office, though, he felt "my personal beliefs and my religious beliefs would be pre-empted by my public responsibility." Shays is a Christian Scientist.

For 13 years in the Connecticut House, and then three more in Washington, reconciling his views on war and peace rarely posed a major predicament. But in 1991, things got complicated.

He would have to vote on whether to give Bush's father authority to send troops to the Persian Gulf. "Ultimately I had to decide what my responsibility was as a public official," Shays said.

He set up a series of tests he wanted Bush to meet before he would vote yes, tests Shays felt were not fully met in Vietnam: There had to be clear national interest, a well-defined mission, a pledge to use all firepower necessary and an exit strategy.

He sat on the House floor listening to the debate that January night, finally speaking at 4:30 a.m.

"I want this issue to be resolved peacefully, diplomatically," Shays said. "But regrettably, Saddam Hussein doubts our resolve. He doesn't believe we will use our military force.

"And a military force that no one, particularly our adversary, believes we will use is not a deterrent."

He slept in his office, then returned to listen to the final six hours later that day, and voted with the president.

His checklist for war now set, Shays developed a new aggressiveness through the 1990s. He became chairman of a House subcommittee that looked into national security issues. Month after month, experts came before his panel lamenting the U.S. lack of response to terrorists and detailing the looming threats.

No one seemed to pay attention. "The media was busy covering Gary Condit," Shays said of the congressman who had an affair with an intern who was later killed.

When the Sept. 11 attack came, Shays was hardly surprised. "I went through a depression after Sept. 11," he said. "I knew what this meant. It meant we couldn't wait for the mushroom cloud. We had to be pre-emptive."

Today, Shays is a devoted defender of the president. The war resolution Congress will consider this week meets the congressman's criteria; the exit strategy, Shays said, is to "stay in Iraq until our allies and us can help establish a new government."

He suggests going further; the main war resolution members will begin considering Tuesday gives Bush authority to act against Iraq, but no one else.

The U.S. should look at Libya, Syria and other countries that may have weapons of mass destruction. "You don't take them all on at once," Shays explained. "But you have to be alert. You have to remember we have had a wakeup call from hell."

Perhaps the greatest irony for Shays, though, is this: What are now his personal beliefs - his view that detection, pro-active policies and pre-emption should guide anti-terrorist policy - define his sense of public responsibility. Yet his mail and calls continue to run about 50-to-1 against war with Iraq.

He insisted he would not relent.

"I know too much," he said, "about this threat."



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