Lawmakers Back Bush on Continuing Battle : Congress: The broad support is in line with polls showing 84% of the public likes the President’s handling of the war.

Key members of Congress, buoyed by reports that a victorious end to the Gulf War may be at hand, Monday urged President Bush to “hang tough” until Iraq publicly acknowledges defeat and agrees to abide by all U.N. resolutions demanding its withdrawal from Kuwait.

“There will be no letup, no cease-fire, no timeouts until Saddam Hussein himself raises the white flag,” Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said. “Our mission is clear. It is time to finish the job, once and for all.”

“This is a time to hang tough,” said Rep. William S. Broomfield (R-Mich.), ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Senior Democrats, reflecting the broad bipartisan support that now exists on Capitol Hill for Bush’s handling of the war, echoed the Republicans’ sentiments. It would be a “terrible mistake” to allow Hussein the opportunity “to declare to his own people some sort of victory,” Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said.

“He has been decisively beaten, and there is no reason for the U.S. and the allies, having puts months into this, tens of billions of dollars and the lives of our men and women on the line, to suddenly say: ‘OK, you can walk away from this with all your equipment, all your army and all your power intact,’ ” said Leahy, who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations.

The remarkable gusto with which Democrats as well as Republicans were lining up to praise the President overshadowed concerns expressed by some lawmakers about the role of U.S. forces in the aftermath of the conflict.

How the United States deals with the military, political and security problems exposed by Iraq’s defeat “may end up being the most difficult phase of the entire conflict,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) warned.

“We’ve got all sorts of problems to deal with,” Nunn said, citing the region’s endemic instability and some of the volatile factors underlying it, including the lack of democracy, disparities between rich and poor and the Arab-Israeli crisis.

“The question never has been whether America could win the war militarily,” said Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations. “The question is, will America have the wisdom, the subtlety, the persistence, the insight and the tenacity . . . to see to it that after the war the region is indeed stabilized?”

The bipartisan rush to praise the performance of U.S. forces and echo the public’s overwhelming support for President Bush may also reflect a political reality.

“No one in Congress wants to end up on the wrong end of an 84% approval rating,” one senior congressional aide said, referring to the latest public opinion polls on Bush’s handling of the war.

“There is no room for half-measures that allow the Iraqi leadership to avoid accepting military defeat. I support the President,” said Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), who before the war was one of the Bush Administration’s most vocal war critics.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach) said a presidential ban on assassinations should be loosened to permit U.S. forces to go after Hussein, arguing that there is “nothing immoral about killing a bloodthirsty tyrant.”

But Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) said that, although he fully supports Bush’s refusal to declare a cease-fire until retreating Iraqi troops have laid down their arms, it would be wiser to let “Saddam Hussein be judged and punished by his own people.”