Bush Bucking for War, British Laborite Says

LONDON — A former British defense minister accused President Bush on Saturday of treating the Persian Gulf crisis like a schoolboy fight with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and risking a disastrous war with “Rambo” remarks.

Opposition Labor Party politician Denis Healey said Bush’s hard-line stance on the gulf crisis and his eagerness to come across as a strong leader could end up dragging a reluctant world into war.

“What is really worrying is that the fear of appearing a wimp has made him act as a sort of ersatz “Rambo,” pushing an unwilling world into disaster,” Healey said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.