There's an email floating around showing all of the Clinton & co. and more recent Democrats (including Kerry) with quotes about Iraq talking about their weapons of mass destruction and how dangerous Saddam is, etc.
Interesting.
But...
All of the quotes post 2001 can easily be answered with that's what Bush said and there was never any reason to doubt the President. He said there were weapons, he said intelligence reports said A, B, and C therefore A, B and C must be true. It never occurred to anyone before then that a sitting President would lie OR be so misled (you have to admit that it is one of those two). Kerry himself has repeatedly answered charges that he voted for the Iraq war originally by saying that he voted for what he was told by the President was an imminent and serious threat. The fact that they were so wrong about that threat is very worrisome. We can't have a system of Government where every time the President asks Congress to do something immediately in an emergency they stop and say "Let us do our own research first, we don't trust you." But that's exactly what Bush has now set up.
I am actually quite willing to believe Bush was misled by faulty intelligence (at least, in part. I admit it, I do think he'd lie for his own political advance. I think most of politicians would). It's obvious that Clinton and company were misled as well. The big difference was that they did not actually attack Iraq. There was a weapons inspection team in place in Iraq in early 2002 and Bush decided to attack preemptively before they were finished. Nothing in that email actually justifies that stance.
I think Bush could win a lot of credibility back by simply saying "The intelligence was faulty and we're going to find out what went wrong and fix it." Rather than continuing to assert that Saddam was dangerous when it is becoming increasingly clearer with everything we learn that he was nothing of the sort. He was being lied to by his own scientists and military. There was nothing there at all. Why Bush still insists on calling Saddam dangerous is a damn good question.
If Clinton had attacked Iraq, I would be saying the same thing. I have no love lost on that man. This ain't partisan for me. This is about being able to trust your leaders to do the right thing, Democrat or Republican. I don't think Dole or McCain would have done this. And I don't think Kerry or Edwards would've either. But Bush has and that's one of many reasons he ain't getting my vote this time around.
Posted by andyjw at February 27, 2004 09:46 AM | TrackBack