Reply #56: the Democrats who voted for the war resolution [View All]

[paulk]

were giving Bush the rope to hang himself with. They forced him to at least make a pretext of going to the UN, and they limited that particular resolution to just Iraq. I'm sure there was a certain amount of "cover your ass" in there too, what with the midterm elections coming up. Also, Bush could have gone ahead with the invasion without Congress's approval - so the Dems were in a lose /lose situation. Personally, I found Kerry's vote (and Hillary's)
extremely disappointing. It was a cold blooded political move.

About the WMD - as other posters have stated, even Bill Clinton thought they had at least something. I think the general perception in Washington was they Iraq had a small amount of WMD - not enough to be a threat, but enough to be in violation of the UN resolutions directed toward it.

Voting for the resolution with the caveats the Democrats were able to insert (last resort, etc.) put all the eggs in Bush's basket. The burden of explaining why we went to war is on his head now, and his head alone.