Some in Congress Rethinking War Vote Based on False Data

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-warvote14jul14.story

Some in Congress Rethinking War Vote Based on False Data
Several Republicans are among those raising doubts that another preemptive attack could win support, but Bush reaffirms his policy.
By Mary Curtius Times Staff Writer July 14, 2004

WASHINGTON — Revelations that prewar intelligence on Iraq was deeply flawed have triggered soul-searching on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers asking whether a more accurate assessment would have changed their vote for war and casting doubt on whether preemptive military action could ever again win approval.

The debate is about more than history, and is more than partisan posturing in a presidential election year. Any future debate on the use of military power "will have that overlay" of the intelligence failure on Iraq, said Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), who voted in October 2002 to authorize President Bush to use force.

"There's a greater burden of proof now when someone comes up here suggesting preemptive action," Smith said, adding that Congress will insist "that we have more concrete facts."

The vote that gave Bush broad leeway to use force against Iraq was seen by many as a revolution in American foreign policy. Breaking with decades of precedent, lawmakers accepted Bush's post-Sept. 11 doctrine of preemption and gave the White House more flexibility to make war — even when there was no imminent threat to U.S. security.<snip>

[aquart]

1. Contradict the king? Yeah, right.

[Mari333]

2. soul searching now????

Excuse me, but hundreds of thousands of us "soul searched" a long frigging time ago..and protested this illegal fraudulent war...and NO ONE LISTENED
if some old 52 yr old mother from Michigan like me can research the lies about this fake war, I would like to think the morons in the House and Senate could have done it too
It took over 20,000 dead civilians and almost 900 dead soldiers for these idiots to soul search???
I dont buy it. Bullshit.

[Raven]

4. Agree! These guys are not soul searching,

they are vote searching. They know they may be in trouble.

[swag]

3. I wrote that motherfucker Smith letter after letter pointing out

just why the war was a stupid and wrongheaded thing to do, why inspections were working just fine, why Saddam was no serious threat, and he answered back with self-justifying pseudo-patriotic form letters.

Now he decides that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Gordon Smith is shit in my book.

[Rainbowreflect]

5. What really pisses me off is that 99% of us on DU knew

the truth. How the hell did the Congress not know?????

[truthspeaker]

6. "Revelations" implies the doubts are new

People were expressing these doubts before the IWR vote, but the idiots in Congress didn't listen.

[Eric J in MN]

7. Kunich was uncovinced. I was unconvinced. So were many people.

Dennis Kucinich is on the House Intelligence Committee, and he said he never saw persuasive evidence of wmd in Iraq.

Personally, I thought the Colin Powell presentation to the UN was bogus, although the press talked about how wonderful it was, including a New York Times editorial.

Bush engaged in so much lying and treachery unrelated to the war before it started, that no one should have trusted him about the war.