By By JOHN EBY / Niles Daily Star
DOWAGIAC -- It's not just the sands that have shifted in Iraq, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin suggested in Dowagiac Monday morning, but also President George W. Bush's justification for unilaterally invading Iraq.
While no proof exists of the weapons of mass destruction Bush used to justify invading Iraq, "Most of us believe that they do, but they hid them. They still may find those weapons because they were hidden well so UN inspectors couldn't find them."
President Bush adopted a new doctrine "which allows for countries -- presumably every country, since we're no different than other countries -- to act pre-emptively, as he would say. To act in the absence of an imminent threat, providing there's a threat of some kind. That would be a change and opens the door to some very serious possibilities in terms of one country attacking another country."
UN support "was the dividing line of the debate in Congress. It was not so much whether to use military force, but whether or not to use military force in the absence of world community support.
Congress voted on two options last fall. One authorized the President to use military force with or without support of the world community -- multilaterally or unilaterally.