"If I had known then what I know now...", goes today's common Congressional cop-out, excusing their 2002 votes authorizing military action against Saddam, while in some cases (the Hillary Gambit) not yet renouncing that vote outright. In the next breath we often hear how "we were misled" , or "the rush to war" is lamented, all of which is of course laid at the feet of George Bush.
But rather than look to the 2002 Congressional votes, I believe it is more instructive to recall the intent, and the very specific language of the Iraq Liberation Act, and the overwhelming bipartisan majority vote by which it was passed; a 360-38 vote in the House, and by unanimous consent in the Senate, if Congressional feet are to be held to the fire.
Notice as you read the act's summary below, and some of the specific crimes of the Saddam regime that follow in the full text, the fact that in 1998 the existence of Saddam's WMD programs was widely accepted, even in the mainstream media community and around the world, as established fact.
And all of this was two full years before George W. Bush was around to do any "misleading" about those weapons programs. Two years before Cheney, Feith, Wolfowitz, and the rest of the warmongering neocons arrived on the scene. Isn't it slightly important now to ask members of Congress first, if they meant what they said in 1998, and second, who it was that was misleading them at the time. (emphasis mine - DW)
SUMMARY:Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 - Declares that it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the Saddam Hussein regime from power in Iraq and to replace it with a democratic government.
Authorizes the President, after notifying specified congressional committees, to provide to the Iraqi democratic opposition organizations: (1) grant assistance for radio and television broadcasting to Iraq; (2) Department of Defense (DOD) defense articles and services and military education and training (IMET); and (3) humanitarian assistance, with emphasis on addressing the needs of individuals who have fled from areas under the control of the Hussein regime. Prohibits assistance to any group or organization that is engaged in military cooperation with the Hussein regime. Authorizes appropriations.
Directs the President to designate: (1) one or more Iraqi democratic opposition organizations that meet specified criteria as eligible to receive assistance under this Act; and (2) additional such organizations which satisfy the President's criteria.
Urges the President to call upon the United Nations to establish an international criminal tribunal for the purpose of indicting, prosecuting, and imprisoning Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials who are responsible for crimes against humanity, genocide, and other criminal violations of international law.
Expresses the sense of the Congress that once the Saddam Hussein regime is removed from power in Iraq, the United States should support Iraq's transition to democracy by providing humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people and democracy transition assistance to Iraqi parties and movements with democratic goals, including convening Iraq's foreign creditors to develop a multilateral response to the foreign debt incurred by the Hussein regime.
It is the second of those highlighted Congressional "senses", the one about "supporting Iraq's transition to democracy", about which the defeatist coalition in Congress should now be reminded. It is that commitment on which they have turned their backs. They now advocate a course that would throw the Iraqi people to the wolves, and waste the lives and time and treasure we have already committed to the task. And the sickening part of it to me is that they seem to have absolutely no compunction or regret at all about doing so, as long as their greater goals of humiliating George Bush and/or getting re-elected can be served in the process.
Some lines from the accompanying signing statement by President Clinton also sound vaguely familiar:
The United States favors an Iraq that offers its people freedom at home. I categorically reject arguments that this is unattainable due to Iraq's history or its ethnic or sectarian make-up. Iraqis deserve and desire freedom like everyone else.
Similar talk by George Bush from 2001 until today has earned him scorn and ridicule from his political opponents. At the time I guess I missed their denunciations of Clinton's idealism as naive and misguided or messianic. I guess I also missed their qualification of their votes to remove Saddam as only valid if we didn't have to, you know, do anything about it ourselves.
Related:
Wizblog: "You say you want an investigation?"