ScaramoucheBlog

Politics, Sex, Religion, and all those impolite Human Conversations...

My Photo
Name:
Location: Oaksterdam, California

Friday, July 30, 2004

John Kerry Did Not Exactly Vote for the War!

Every time I turn on the news I hear about how John Kerry voted for the war and then didn't vote to fund it. Even if you repeat it enough times that does not make it true.

John Kerry did not vote for the war. To be precise, there was never a vote in Congress for invading Iraq exactly. Rather there was a vote to give Bush the authority to attack Iraq if, after using all diplomatic means, it refused to give up Weapons of Mass Destruction as required by UN Resolution, or if it was determined that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attack.

Today, we know these 2 arguments of the Administration proved to be false. Furthermore, the requirement to report to Congress findings of such, before launching an attack, were not fulfilled which John Dean finds to be an impeachable offense.

Kerry did not vote for the war. However he helped co-sign the 'blank check' as did most of the Senate.

At the worst, Kerry voted for an expected honest assessment from a President, with the best intelligence agencies in the world at his disposable, to make the correct decision.

Bush made a detailed case for granting him that authority in October 2002, just before the congressional vote (read the article as it tracks the facts). This was 6 months before we learned Bush's gut was the deciding factor as it digested the intelligence it desired. At the worst Kerry was fooled, but he was not alone.

To be fair, if the arguments of the Administration were correct, WMD and 9/11 involvement, the war might've been justified despite the dubious doctrine of pre-emption. Yet Bush played his hand like a high-stakes gambler and crossed his Rubicon prematurely. He is no Caesar and the dice he rolled came up snake-eyes

To tell you the truth, if I were a Senator and I was asked for a vote of confidence on an important military decision and then felt manipulated, lied to, I might get pissed off enough to run for President myself- just to kick the lying manipulating bastard out of office.