The Bush administration plans to “make war to make money,” said Senate write-in candidate Randall Forsberg yesterday in Cambridge.

“Iraq does not pose a threat to our security,” she said. Rather, she said, the president’s desire to invade is “about oil and it’s about control.”

Forsberg, a Democrat, is running against Democratic Senator John Kerry and libertarian candidate Michael Cloud. Her main platform and distinction from Kerry is her opposition to the war in Iraq.

Forsberg said she decided to run against Kerry because she believes he betrayed his constituents by approving the War Powers resolution, which was passed recently in Congress and gives the president “pre-approved” authority to launch an attack. By approving the resolution, Kerry aided in giving authority to an “irresponsible” and “arch-conservative” administration, she said.

Bush and Kerry’s actions angered many Massachusetts citizens by “dismantling the structure of international law,” she added.

Despite her write-in candidacy and late entrance into the election race, “the initial response of voters was wildly enthusiastic,” Forsberg described. She said she has a following in the tens of thousands and hopes to reach the hundreds of thousands range. Many Democratic constituents did not know how to express their disapproval of Kerry’s actions, she said, and now “they have a choice.”

Although Bush now has the “legal authority” to launch an attack, he does not necessarily have the “political authority,” Forsberg said. The public’s enthusiasm for a pre-emptive strike against Iraq has “gone down steadily ever since Sept. 11.”

Rather than engaging in war with Iraq, Forsberg said she advocates more diplomatic routes to dismantling Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. She proposed lifting economic sanctions and encouraging foreign investment in Iraq while establishing a widespread arms embargo that would cover a wide range of weapons, from conventional weapons used by civilians to specialized tools used in nuclear or biological warfare.

Forsberg also said she proposes limiting Hussein’s resources by freezing his assets. These avenues, she argued, are more in line with the “international consensus” than launching an attack on Iraq.

The Senate candidate also warned of the parallels between Bush’s policy on Iraq and “18th century imperialist policy,” in that the world’s current superpower wishes to attack a country that “happens to have the second largest oil reserves” in the world. If the United States attacks Iraq, she declared there would be “hell to pay.”