Lugar backs Bush's plan

MOORESVILLE, Ind. -- Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar said President Bush is following a sensible path in his march toward a confrontation with Iraq and Saddam Hussein.\nLugar, a Republican, commended Bush for deciding to take his case for military action against Iraq to Congress and the United Nations.\nHe said the White House counsel's opinion that Bush does not need congressional approval to act was "an interesting point of view."\n"It may be legally correct, but it would be politically disastrous," Lugar told Morgan County Republicans on Saturday.\nThe state's senior senator emphasized that Iraq's chemical and biological weapons must be found and destroyed.\n"At minimum, we have to enforce the six (U.N.) Security Council resolutions," Lugar said, "They give us the right for inspection ... as a result of Desert Storm. My point is that we need to demand enforcement of those rights. We need to ask other nations to agree to do the things they have already voted to do."\nSaudi Arabia, which supported and served as a staging area for U.S. troops during the 1991 Gulf War, has expressed strong misgivings about another U.S. offensive against Iraq.\nLugar said the Saudis will ultimately side with the U.S.\n"We'll put great pressure on the Saudis," Lugar said. "They really have to help us and I think they will. They are scared to death of regime change in Saudi Arabia, and so are their neighbors."\n"It'll be under great duress, but nevertheless I think we are going to have some allies there, we're going to have some bases"