Gorton Labels Clinton Policy On Iraq A Failure Washington Senator Casts Lone Vote Against Military Action

Washington state’s senior senator Friday condemned President Clinton’s air strikes on Iraq, saying they have eroded U.S. alliances in the region while costing Iraq only “a handful of radar sites.”

“The United States has been defeated and humiliated. We have added to the instability of the Middle East and whetted Saddam Hussein’s appetite for further adventures,” Republican Slade Gorton said.

Gorton’s scathing attack came after he cast the lone vote Thursday night against a Senate resolution praising the air strikes.

“I believe that within a short period of time, a majority of my colleagues will wish that they had voted the way I voted last night,” he said of the resolution that passed 96-1.

“We have been abandoned by all of our allies in the Middle East, none of whom was willing publicly to support our military response. We have been repudiated by France with respect to our new no-flight zone,” he said.

“Our president has now terminated the military adventure and has proclaimed victory. A few more victories like this and we will be announcing a no-fly zone over Riyadh” in Saudi Arabia.

Gorton said Clinton should have extracted a greater military price from Iraq or “made the choice that we had no dog in that fight.”

“We did neither,” said the former prosecutor, who likened the air strikes to levying a $100 fine on murderers.

“We responded to this fight among Kurdish partisans in a way that could not possibly help the victims of that Iraqi aggression.

“The net result is that Iraq has regained control over much of Iraqi Kurdistan. It has slaughtered its rebels, many of whom were under our implicit protection and have been abandoned by us,” Gorton said.

“It has shown the United States to be a paper tiger. And at what cost is it paid? A handful of radar sites,” he said.

At Republican insistence, the Senate resolution passed Thursday night made no mention of Clinton by name. The compromise language commends U.S. armed forces acting “under the direction of the commander in chief.”