Scott Ritter: Kerry, Too, Needs to Clear the Air

[robbedvoter]

Kerry, Too, Needs to Clear the Air

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vprit093662615feb09,0,359814.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines

By Scott Ritter
Scott Ritter, former UN chief inspector in Iraq, 1991-1998, is the author of "Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America."

February 9, 2004
snip
The problem for Sen. Kerry, of course, is that he, too, is culpable in the massive breach of public trust that has come to light regarding Iraq, WMD and the rush to war.
Almost 30 years after his appearance before the Senate, Sen. Kerry was given the opportunity to make good on his promises that he had learned the lessons of Vietnam. During a visit to Washington in April 2000, when I lobbied senators and representatives for a full review of American policy regarding Iraq, I spoke with John Kerry about what I held to be the hyped-up intelligence regarding the threat posed by Iraq's WMD. "Put it in writing," Kerry told me, "and send it to me so I can review what you're saying in detail."
I did just that, penning a comprehensive article for Arms Control Today, the journal of the Arms Control Association, on the "Case for the Qualitative Disarmament of Iraq." This article, published in June 2000, provided a detailed breakdown of Iraq's WMD capability and made a comprehensive case that Iraq did not pose an imminent threat. I asked the Arms Control Association to send several copies to Sen. Kerry's office but, just to make sure, I sent him one myself. I never heard back from the senator.
snip
Despite receiving thousands of phone calls, letters and e-mails demanding that dissenting expert opinion, including my own, be aired at the hearing, Sen. Kerry apparently did nothing, allowing a sham hearing to conclude with the finding that there was "no doubt" Saddam Hussein had WMD.
Sen. Kerry followed up this performance in October 2002 by voting for the war in Iraq. Today he justifies that vote by noting that he only approved the "threat of war," and that the blame for Iraq rests with President George W. Bush, who failed to assemble adequate international support for the war. But this explanation rings hollow in the face of David Kay's findings that there are no WMD in Iraq. With the stated casus belli shown to be false
John Kerry needs to better explain his role not only in propelling our nation into a war that is rapidly devolving into a quagmire, but more importantly, his perpetuation of the falsehoods that got us there to begin with.
President Bush should rightly be held accountable for what increasingly appears to be deliberately misleading statements made by him and members of his administration regarding the threat posed by Iraq's WMD. If such deception took place, then Bush no longer deserves the trust and confidence of the American people.
But John Kerry seems to share in this culpability, and if he wants to be the next president of the United States, he must first convince the American people that his actions somehow differ from those of the man he seeks to replace.More

"Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

[Options Remain]

1. Simple Rovism

If you want to hurt Kerry go after the issue that has hurt him the most.

TearForger

[lcordero]

2. damn, he put him on blast

[seventhson]

3. Ashes to Ashes, Bones to Bones

Kerry Knew

[IndianaGreen]

4. "Sen. Kerry apparently did nothing"

Well, he did vote for IWR, and he did support the war when it began, and he did cheered when Saddam's statue was toppled by Chalabi's people (who had been driven to Baghdad from Northern Iraq just for the photo op).

Kerry did not criticize the war until things began to go sour for us with the Iraqi people.

[Moderator]

5. Locking--not LBN

Opinion pieces are not appropriate for this forum