Reply #42: But ... But ... But ... [View All]

[welshTerrier2]

i was strongly against the IWR ... i called Kerry's office and was told his calls were running 20 - 1 against the resolution ... and i would never defend Kerry's IWR vote ... he made a tragic mistake yielding Congressional authorization to bush ...

i'm a kucinich-kerry undecided voter btw ...

the answer to your question is it DOES matter ... it matters very much ... but, all issues must be held in proper perspective ...

one perspective, for example, is that it's not entirely clear any of the democratic "front-runners" would have voted against the resolution ... we've been around and around on this but Dean did support Biden-Lugar and he also called for unilateral invasion of Iraq (within 60 days) if bush presented WMD evidence (which he did via Powell's fraudulent U.N. presentation) ... and who knows how Clark would have voted ...

so, perspective one is that it's not clear we have a real alternative on the IWR issue ... with the exception of Kucinich and Sharpton of course ..

secondly, however opposed to the IWR you are, you should be at least that opposed to bush remaining in office ... if bush gets four more years, we're going into Syria, maybe Iran, maybe N. Korea and who knows where else ... so, perspective two has to put significant emphasis on the pure pragmatism of getting bush out of there ... if someone believes one of the IWR supporters is the best man for the job, perhaps you need to not be so "single minded" about the past and need to weigh the future on at least equal footing ...

and finally, perspective three recognizes, as others in this thread have pointed out, that there are other issues ... this is not to minimize statements like "their votes resulted in thousands of deaths" ... frankly, i'm somewhat predisposed to agree with the sentiment although it's entirely possible bush would have invaded Iraq with or without their IWR votes ... but there are other critical issues that affect the lives of the neediest Americans ... we should not ignore the economy, jobs, healthcare, corporatism, the environment, taxation, education, racism and on and on to focus solely on IWR ...

the point is not to brush IWR under the rug but rather to keep it in perspective ...