Bush's blank check.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Congress has approved a resolution giving President Bush unlimited power to wage unilateral, preemptive war on Iraq. Americans can now only hope and pray that the president will make prudent use of power that could, if wielded irresponsibly, plunge the Middle East into chaos and have dire, unforeseen consequences for this nation.

Congress did shamefully little to fulfill its constitutional role as a check on presidential authority. Many members voted out of fear, eager not to end up on the wrong side of polls with a hot midterm election weeks away. They handed Bush a resolution that frees him from any requirement to seek congressional approval to deploy troops, order air strikes and wage an all-out ground war with Iraq.

It's hardly reassuring to recall that the last time Congress took similar action was when it passed the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution. The result was exponential expansion of the Vietnam War, which the United States ultimately lost at a cost of tens of thousands of American soldiers' lives.

The resolution requires only that the president notify Congress within 48 hours of any military action against Iraq and submit a report at least every 60 days about any campaign. In other words: "Just let us know now and then how the war is going, Mr. President."

Now Bush will proceed to press the United Nations to follow the lead of Congress and give U.S. troops the green light to strike Baghdad. Hopefully, the United States' international partners will show more backbone - and common sense - than Congress.

So far, the Bush administration has based its case for war on broad, unsubstantiated assertions. The White House has yet to produce proof that Iraq poses a clear and present danger to the United States or has ties to the al-Qaeda network. Nor has the administration offered any semblance of a road map for a post-war Iraq.

The optimal scenario now is for the administration, backed with the powerful congressional resolution, to win Security Council support for a tough new inspections regime backed by the threat of international military action. If Saddam Hussein allows U.N. arms investigators back into Iraq with no restrictions - and if the United States shows restraint while the inspectors do their job - then a war can be averted.

Bush has toned down the rhetoric in recent days, saying he intends to work with the United Nations and wants to avoid unilateral action. Americans should hope the president's newfound moderation is genuine - and not a strategy aimed at quieting critics and positioning the United States for a war whose costs and consequences cannot be foreseen.