In fury over casus belli, the peril of probing Bush

On Friday, the Senate Armed Services Committee went into closed session with top officials the Defense Intelligence Agency over leaked allegations that there was no reliable information that Iraq was producing or stockpiling chemical weapons.

The conclusion reported in the press was "lifted out of context and not intended to characterize the program," said Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, which produced that September 2002 report.

Sen. John Warner (R) of Virginia called the session an "orderly and calm discussion" of "the questions on the mind of the American people." He appealed to the American people to "continue to repose trust in the administration" as these investigations go forward.

While such issues are gaining intensity in legislatures and the media, the public does not appear to be paying attention.

In recent polls, the number of people responding that the war was justified even if the US does not find conclusive evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction has grown from 38 percent at the outset to 56 percent, according to a recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, May 30-June 1, 2003.

"The Democrats' real problem is that the American public doesn't seem to care," says Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia. "You have to have enough interest and even anger in the general public to sustain this type of inquiry, and it's not there. Americans do not like to look their victories in the mouth."

In the past, congressional investigations into the conduct of wars began only after the war ran into trouble. Senate hearings into the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, which provided the rationale for the Vietnam War, did not begin until 1966. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was not repealed until 1969.

"There's always been a reluctance to carry on an investigation while troops are in harm's way," says Donald Ritchie, associate historian of the Senate. "When the war is over, that's the time when investigations seem to be more appropriate."

Bush administration officials insist it's too early to say weapons won't be found. "This was a program that was built for concealment," said National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on television talk shows.

Meanwhile, top Republicans say it's a mistake to focus on weapons of mass destruction as the main cause for going to war.

"To dredge all this up as a scandal is nonsense," says Sen. Richard Lugar (R) of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Intelligence is an inexact science, and when it comes to weapons of mass destruction, it is not very good. They may be gone in hours, not just misplaced but destroyed."

Even if weapons of mass destruction are never found in Iraq, "there is no doubt ... that if [Saddam Hussein] had been left alone, he would have continued to try to develop these weapons," said Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona last week.

• Staff writer Faye Bowers contributed to this report.

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