The more intelligent question is, given what we knew at the time, was toppling Saddam's regime a worthwhile objective? Bush's answer is yes, Howard Dean's is no. Kerry's answer is that it was a worthwhile objective but was disastrously executed. For this "nuance" Kerry has been attacked from both the right and the left. But it happens to be the most defensible position on the subject.
...Bush's position is that if Kerry agrees with him that Saddam was a problem, then Kerry agrees with his Iraq policy. Doing something about Iraq meant doing what Bush did. But is that true? Did the United States have to go to war before the weapons inspectors had finished their job? Did it have to junk the United Nations' process? Did it have to invade with insufficient troops to provide order and stability in Iraq? Did it have to occupy a foreign country with no cover of legitimacy from the world community? Did it have to ignore completely the State Department's postwar planning? Did it have to pack the Governing Council with unpopular exiles, disband the Army and engage in radical de-Baathification? Did it have to spend a fraction of the money allocated for Iraqi reconstruction—and have that be mired in charges of corruption and favoritism? Was all this an inevitable consequence of dealing with the problem of Saddam?
Kerry's vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq was the correct one. It gave teeth, as they say, to the UN resolutions by showing Saddam that the U.S. military was standing by to enforce them. It certainly did not amount to a blanket endorsement of every fool decision undertaken by the Bush Administration subsequent to that vote.
Kerry's vote against the President's $87 billion request was also correct. This is the $87 billion that Kerry did vote for, which would have
provide[d] funds for the security and stabilization of Iraq by suspending a portion of the reductions in the highest income tax rate for individual taxpayers.
The President's version, which passed, leaves the financial mess for others to clean up. Imagine, John Kerry votes for the more fiscally responsible of two appropriations bills, and for that he is condemned by Republicans. Wow.
The Bush Doctrine: "With me or against us."
1 comment:
I have always loved the "disastrously executed" phrase. This week Bush announced the removal of 70,000 US troops from Germany and Korea. This must represent the longest "exit strategy" in the history of US warfare. What was FDR and Truman thinking ? Fifty years .. damn.
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