Two-term incumbent Bishop said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has kept Congress informed on the war, but, "Tactical decisions should never be made by politicians." He also emphasized that "cutting and running would be negative" to Iraqis and U.S. allies.

In the debate Wednesday night on KBYU-TV, Olsen agreed that combat decisions should be made by field commanders but argued that civilian leadership in the Pentagon had failed the troops. "We need to give [the military] a strategy. We need a way of getting some help to those guys [troops] or find a way to get them out of there."

Olsen, an engineer, has a son serving on a Navy submarine.

Bishop, however, criticized Congress (he was not a member at the time) for giving the Bush administration the authority to use force in Iraq, instead of voting for a declaration of war. Simply giving the president the power to use force has allowed members of Congress to "hypocritically" distance themselves from the war after the situation deteriorated.

When the pair were asked if, knowing what is now known about the true Iraq threat under Saddam Hussein, would they have declared war, Bishop said he still would have for several reasons, including Saddam's treaty violations and firing on the U.S. military.

"What we did in Iraq was the right thing, and it was the legal thing," Bishop said. "More than Korea."

Bishop has said that in his mind, the Bush administration's emphasis on the threat of weapons of mass destruction, which were never found, was not a significant factor in the decision to invade.

Olsen, a Cache County native, said he supported military pressure being applied to Saddam along with diplomatic measures but was surprised and disappointed when Bush invaded. "I didn't think the president would invade. I thought he was being a Texas poker player," he said. "Even if it was legal, we should have found another way [to deal with Saddam's threat]."

glwarchol@sltrib.com