From a press release from Senator John Cornyn (who is on Armed Services) in response to a Howard Dean statement that the liberation of Iraq should only have taken place with U.N. “permission:”
“Since when do we need ‘permission’ to protect our nation, our allies and the security of an entire region? Since when does the United States of America need to ask permission before ending decades of rape rooms, torture chambers and the genocide of hundreds of thousands of civilians? It’s disappointing, and I believe quite telling, that he would want to abdicate the responsibility of our national security to a body that left its own sanctions unenforced for more than a decade.
“If the ask-the-U.N.’s-permission crowd had their way, Saddam would still be in power today, rather than in the custody of the 4th Infantry Division.
“I encourage Mr. Dean to visit the troops and families at Fort Hood, home of the 4th Infantry Division and the storied 1st Cavalry Division. It’s a perspective worth having, and something he is apparently lacking.”
Responding to a question following a speech to the Pacific Council on International Policy Monday, Dean declared, “Had the United Nations given us permission and asked us to be a part of a multilateral force, I would not have hesitated to go into Iraq.”