Dean Doesn’t Bend in His Opposition to War in Iraq

Howard Dean on Monday stood by his criticism of the war with Iraq, hailing the capture of Saddam Hussein but saying that his seizure had failed to make America safer and that the invasion of the former dictator’s country was launched “in the wrong way at the wrong time.”

Dean’s statements before a public-affairs group in Los Angeles drew stinging rejoinders from rivals in the Democratic presidential contest, who have struggled to slow his momentum and hope his opposition to the war now will cause him more political harm than good.

Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut suggested that the former Vermont governor had “climbed into his own spider hole of denial.”

Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts said Dean’s comments showed he lacked the leadership skills and temperament to be president.

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri assailed Dean for having faulted others -- such as himself, Kerry and Lieberman -- who backed the congressional resolution that authorized the invasion.

The back-and-forth came on a campaign day devoted to foreign policy, with Dean and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina delivering speeches calling for steps to fight international terrorism, mend fractured ties with U.S. allies and stem the international threat from weapons of mass destruction.

“We should be exercising every option we have to stop the spread of deadly weapons before war becomes our only option,” Edwards said in a speech in Des Moines.

But the capture of Hussein and the larger question of whether the Iraq war was justified dominated the long-distance debate, much as it has in the Democratic campaign.

Dean, whose rise to front-runner status was fueled in large part by his staunch antiwar stance, on Sunday offered brief remarks after Hussein’s capture, mainly lauding the efforts of U.S. troops.

But on Monday, appearing before the Pacific Council on International Policy, Dean countered speculation that the arrest could undercut his candidacy by repeating his opposition to President Bush’s Iraqi policy.

“My position on the war in Iraq has not changed,” Dean said moments into his 37-minute speech. “The difficulties and the tragedies which we have faced in Iraq show the administration launched the war in the wrong way, at the wrong time, with inadequate planning, insufficient help and at the extraordinary cost, so far, of $166 billion.”

In contrast to his fiery delivery on the campaign trail, Dean was subdued as he spoke, and the nonpartisan audience responded in kind, with polite applause at the beginning and the end of his remarks but none of the enthusiasm typical of more political crowds.

While describing the capture of Hussein as “a good thing,” Dean said the arrest “has not made America safer.” He said the biggest threat to U.S. security is the prospect of another attack by Al Qaeda terrorists and their sympathizers, as well as the danger of weapons of mass destruction falling into the wrong hands. Fighting those twin threats, Dean said, would be his top global priorities if elected president.

Although Dean’s speech had been in the works for weeks, it was clearly influenced by the weekend’s dramatic events. The text was reworked several times after Hussein’s arrest, and Dean returned to the subject repeatedly during his appearance in Century City.

At one point, he described Hussein as “a frightful person” and said he was “delighted ... he was gone.” However, Dean continued, “There are many frightful people in the world, all of whom undoubtedly we would be better off without.”

Almost all the other Democratic candidates made a point of responding to Dean’s remarks, sensing that Hussein’s capture -- and the public’s reaction to it -- could alter the dynamics of the nomination race.

Lieberman, the most fervent supporter of the war among the Democratic candidates, was especially harsh in his response to Dean’s remarks. Calling Hussein a “homicidal maniac,” “a brutal dictator” and “a supporter of terrorism,” Lieberman said in a conference call with reporters that if Dean “truly believes that the capture of this evil man has not made America safer, then Howard Dean has put himself in his own spider hole of denial.”

He added: “I fear that the American people will wonder if they will be safer with him as president if Howard Dean cannot understand why the capture” of Hussein has made America safer.

Kerry, campaigning in Iowa, said Dean’s speech was “still more proof that all the advisors in the world can’t give Howard Dean the military and foreign-policy experience, leadership skills or diplomatic temperament necessary to lead this country through dangerous times.”

Edwards, who also supported the war, was the most measured in his criticism, in keeping with efforts to position himself above the Democratic skirmishing. “Because of the position I’ve taken on Saddam Hussein in the past ... I differ with Gov. Dean about that,” Edwards said of Dean’s comments.

In his speech at a Des Moines high school, Edwards criticized the Bush administration’s decision to bar allies who opposed the war with Iraq from bidding on contracts for rebuilding the country. Opening the process, he said, would be a way “to take the American face off this operation” and would help “to add legitimacy to what has happened.”

Edwards also called for a summit of international leaders to establish tighter standards for handling nuclear materials and said he would press for a U.N. Security Council resolution to give the international community more authority to confront nations, such as North Korea, that do not comply with nonproliferation treaties. The resolution would authorize the interception of ships, airplanes and motor vehicles from countries suspected of violating international controls on deadly weapons.

Edwards said he would expand U.S. efforts to secure so-called loose nuclear arms in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere, paying for it by cutting the government’s budget for developing new nuclear weapons.

Dean’s speech was billed as the first major foreign-policy address of his campaign, but it largely amounted to a recitation of positions he had previously stated. It included a vow to end what he called Bush’s “my-way-or-hit-the-highway” approach to international relations, and a pledge to forge better ties with Mexico and other Latin American nations.

Among the new proposals was a call to boost U.S. spending -- to $30 billion over 10 years -- on a worldwide program aimed at securing nuclear, chemical and biological materials that could be converted into weapons of mass destruction. He also proposed increasing U.S. aid to combat Third World poverty and disease, which he described as “breeding ... the hatred peddled” by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden “and other merchants of death.”

He outlined what he called a “Dean Doctrine” that offered “a very clear definition of when we use force unilaterally” -- in “limited” cases of self-defense, to prevent an imminent threat, such as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and to prevent genocide. The invasion of Iraq, he said, failed to meet those criteria.

Joining Monday’s debate from the sidelines was Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who offered a stance on Iraq several degrees to the right of Dean and most of the other Democratic candidates.

In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, Clinton joined the leading Democratic hopefuls in urging Bush to cede power over designing the new Iraqi government to the U.N. or another international body. But while the presidential contenders have been denouncing Bush’s path to reconstruction as a failure, Clinton said that Americans need to demonstrate “patience” in Iraq, and that the U.S. may need to commit more troops to the country.

“The idea that we can bring about dramatic transformational change either in a short period of time or with a relatively limited financial commitment is contradicted by our own history,” she said, citing the experience of reconstructing Germany and Japan after World War II.

Also on Monday, Dean won the endorsement of two Democratic House members from Los Angeles, Xavier Becerra and Lucille Roybal-Allard.

*

Times staff writers Nick Anderson, Ronald Brownstein, Matea Gold, Scott Martelle and James Rainey contributed to this report.