WAR WATCH : A Vote With Dire Implications

Despite the large votes for continued diplomatic and economic actions, Congress has declared war on Iraq.

If President Bush utilizes the total power ceded him unwisely by the Congress and initiates an American war with Iraq, the immediate and long-range implications are truly devastating:

-- It will not be a war to remove Iraq from Kuwait, but to remove Saddam Hussein from Iraq, and that goal guarantees a war on the ground as well as in the air, a war that will surely fragment our fragile alliance with Arab states and a war that will undoubtedly be fought primarily with American lives and American dollars.

-- We will incur tens of billions of tax dollars in new debt, and raise taxes, to finance both a war and to rebuild and restore a post-Hussein Iraq, while our allies make meager contributions.

-- By compounding a 1991 deficit of $325 billion, we will have no alternative but to forgo efforts to improve health care, education, transportation, drug and crime prevention and other urgent needs for years to come.

-- War means committing tens of thousands of young Americans to years as hated occupation and peacekeeping forces in the Saudi sands and the destabilized Middle East, while the young talent of our economic competitors fulfill ambitions and expand their competitive advantage over our nation.

Hopefully, continuing diplomatic efforts will defy the probability of war, but the actions of the Congress on Saturday make the likelihood of a terrible conflict far more likely.