Gore Says Americans Back U.N. Resolutions on Iraq

Returning home to a wandering hero’s welcome, Democratic vice presidential nominee Al Gore issued a stern warning to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Wednesday that Americans are united in their support for U.N. inspection of records and suspected weapons sites.

Gore said he and presidential nominee Bill Clinton would support using force to enforce the U.N. resolutions. “If the use of force is necessary to resolve (the matter), if that is required as a way of enforcing the United Nations’ resolutions, then that will be the case,” he said.

“Saddam Hussein ought to understand very clearly that we are unified as a nation . . . “ he added.

At the same time, the Tennessee senator chastised the Bush Administration for “playing footsie” with Hussein before the Persian Gulf War. A few weeks ago, Clinton himself accused Bush of appeasing Saddam--citing reports that the Iraqi leader diverted U.S. food aid for weapons, and that U.S. leaders had reason to know of the diversion.

“Should President Bush and Vice President Quayle be held responsible for playing footsie with Saddam in the weeks prior to Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait?” Gore said. “Sure. They made a mistake and it was a serious mistake.”

Gore charged that the White House empowered Saddam to attack Kuwait. The senator said he “was on the floor of the United States Senate with a bipartisan group of senators calling for a cutoff of foreign aid to Saddam Hussein just two weeks before the invasion.”

They were rebuffed by Bush and Quayle, whom he described as eager to continue dealing with Saddam. “President Bush and Vice President Quayle said, ‘Oh no, he’s our good buddy. Leave him alone. . . . We like for him to be in power” Gore said in a mocking falsetto. “We know that only days before the invasion our ambassador there was coddling (Saddam), playing up to him.”

Gore’s comments followed a boisterous homecoming welcome by several hundred supporters who crowded into an airport hangar to greet him on his return from a six-day, 1,000-mile campaign journey that immediately followed the Democratic National Convention in New York.