Students who oppose war and plan to vote next week in the
congressional district that includes UCLA have two choices ““
vote for a Democrat who helped grant President Bush the authority
he sought to attack Iraq or a Republican who said he would have
done the same.
California’s 29th District, which includes Westwood,
Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood, is one of the most
affluent and most liberal districts in the country. Henry Waxman,
the Democratic, 28-year U.S. House of Representatives incumbent, is
almost sure to be reelected ““Â when elections come around
he regularly pulls in about 70 percent of the district’s
vote.
But Waxman, himself a UCLA alumnus who a generation ago opposed
the Vietnam War, voted earlier this month with the minority of
House Democrats on legislation giving the president authority to
strike against Iraq, without United Nations approval if
necessary.
In a phone interview Tuesday, Waxman said what many Democrats,
including Senators Diane Feinstein of California and Hillary
Clinton of New York, have said since the legislation went through
Congress: “It was a very difficult vote.”
In his nearly three decades of service, Waxman has pushed a
rather liberal domestic agenda. He called for federal aid to study
the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s. He ruthlessly pursued big
tobacco companies and called for clean air legislation. Now, Waxman
is seeking prosecution for corporate wrongdoers.
Though he ended up siding with Bush, with whom he often
disagrees, on this international issue, Waxman had a number of
concerns about the Iraq legislation.
First, he said, the timing seemed political ““Â Waxman
did not see the need to rush the legislation through Congress just
before November’s elections.
Also, Waxman said he has not been happy with the Bush
administration’s record on a series of other international
issues ““Â including its rejection of the Kyoto Protocol,
an international treaty designed to combat global warming, and its
ending of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia, the
30-year-old agreement that was the centerpiece of U.S.-Soviet
nuclear equilibrium.
Waxman said he “disliked the rhetoric surrounding the idea
that the U.S. can act unilaterally.”
Waxman originally favored alternative legislation that would for
a period of time have given Bush the authority to use force only if
the United Nations approved it. If that time expired, Congress
would then consider granting Bush authority to act
unilaterally.
After that legislation failed, Waxman “had a choice of
having to vote “˜yes’ or “˜no'” on the
resolution that gave Bush authority to strike unilaterally.
Having consulted academics, think-tank experts and other
politicians, Waxman ““ viewing Saddam Hussein as a credible
threat with weapons of mass destruction, who had repeatedly
violated the truce that ended the Gulf War ““ made the
decision to vote “yes.”
Waxman said many people “who felt strongly about the issue
on both sides” had called or written his office. The
Congressman considered their views, and made the best judgement he
could, he said.
Waxman’s Republican opponent in a race that includes no
third-party candidates said he too would favor authorizing force
against Iraq.
“It’s something that needs to be done,” said
Tony Goss, in an earlier interview. “If something had been
done against (Osama) bin Laden a couple of years ago, maybe things
would be different.”
“Obviously diplomacy hasn’t worked,” Goss said
of the Iraq situation. “Hopefully we will not need to use
force, but if we have to, I think we should.”
Students and other members of the UCLA community who oppose the
use of force against Iraq, meanwhile, differ on whether they could
lend support to a congressman who does not share their views.
“I’d want my congressman to find other ways to help
reconcile the conflict … before considering war,” said
Rebecca Tran, a third-year molecular, cell and developmental
biology student. “It should be our very last
option.”
Todd Henneman, who received an MBA from the Anderson School in
2001 and is registered to vote in Waxman’s district, said in his
view “there’s still a case to be made about pursuing
all diplomatic options before going to war.”
But Henneman said Waxman’s stance “would not
automatically make me not vote for him.”
“I’d vote for him if he were the best option
available,” he added. “I’d have to research his
opponent first.”