LAT: Some in Congress Rethinking War Vote Based on False Data

[DeepModem Mom]

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
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


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....

***

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.

Now some senators are saying that documentation of the intelligence failure dealt a serious blow to that doctrine, and others are left rethinking their vote for war....

(Senators Feinstein and Rockefeller are quoted as saying they would have voted differently; Senator Breaux is quoted as saying he "likely" would have.)


http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-warvote14jul14,1,4456652.story?coll=la-home-politics

[IndianaGreen]

1. Duh!

If they hadn't ignored the thousands of letters, faxes, and e-mails they got from people opposing the war, and if they hadn't belittle the mass antiwar demonstrations, they wouldn't be wringing their hands now and we wouldn't have nearly a thousand dead GIs.

Hypocrites!

[Born Free]

2. cynical thinking....

Maybe the GOP now realize the bush team is going down in November and want to get things back to normal so the incoming democratic leadership won't have as much power as the GOP did during the bush teams reign.ok it's only cynical thinking....but what out for a lot of changes before election to lessen the power of the white house

[IndianaGreen]

3. The best thing we can do is to elect a Democratic Congress

and send idiots like kitten-killer Bill Frist and Tom DeLay back to the back room.

[Disturbed]

5. Did all Repubs vote for this resolution?

I believe that all but 23 Dems voted for it. Kucinich, Byrd and Kennedy spoke out against it but most Dems caved in to BushCo. The excuse about the faulty intell. doesn't wash with me. Hans Blix was making progress but BushCo didn't want the truth to be revealed. The Dems are complicit and Kerry/Edwards still want to stay the course.

[IndianaGreen]

7. "Stay the course" is pure folly!

It will accomplish two things: more people will die for nothing, and the Iraq war will become a Democratic war.

[jackofhearts]

4. Soul searching on capitol hill...yeah right...

Oh so now maybe launching an illegal and immoral invasion of a nation which we had no proof had ever done anything to our own nation was wrong? So now maybe, just maybe we should have let Blix and the inspectors finish their work. Gee I guess since they were destroying weapons maybe we should have been a little more patient realizing that the lives of our soldiers and innocent men, women and children were at stake.

Sorry you spineless lackeys...there is no forgiveness here. You allowed yourselves to be manipulated by a group of fascist war mongers. You allowed yourselves to be brought under some hypnotic state of patriotism. The UN inspections were the right thing to be doing and to have allowed our nation to stop those inspections and attack Iraq is perhaps the most damning thing this nation has done in recent memory. And you all are to blame.

I don't want to hear anyone up there on capitol hill saying this kind of bullshit. You all have blood on your hands. You all are responsible. And even now you won't stand up and say this idea of pre-emptive attacks on other nations is WRONG...it goes against all laws of decency. Shut the hell up and start showing us your pissed at the fascists by impeaching them and putting them up for war crimes. Words are cheap. We all know this whole affair was immoral, illegal and just plain wrong.

[Disturbed]

6. Furthermore...

I was typing while you were and you stated the case even better.

The Congress is keeping the Prison Torture under wraps. They are not going over to the DOD to get the 2K pages of the Taguba Report that was "accidently" not copied.

[Hekate]

8. It's heartening to see DiFi renounce her vote

I thought it was never gonna happen after all this time. She's on the Intelligence Committee, and the Bushies must have done one heckuva song and dance to convince them all. I have at least one friend who swore to never vote for Senator Feinstein again, but all I've really wanted from her was an acknowledgment that she understood that she had been lied to, and had she known the truth she would not have voted to support the invasion.

Now she's done that, and I feel I can support her again.

Nonetheless, she (and the rest) should still have her nose rubbed in the fact that at least 50,000 of her constituents e-mailed and phoned her to say that we opposed invading Iraq.

Hekate

[Solly Mack]

9. the dead can't rethink the vote

[Mountainman]

10. I believe that these congress critters are using the report as a way out.

It is really amazing to me how so many of us here at DU knew the truth about Saddam and his WMDs etc. because we were willing to listen to the UN inspectors and to listen to the leaders of the EU. Yet no debate was had on the war in Congress. I think it was the media hype of the nation's reaction to 9/11 that those in Congress were afraid to go against the war for fear of losing their seats. The "God Bless America" crowd had everyone cowered into supporting what ever Bush wanted to do.

What we really need now is a very loud and very public non politicized debate among the non government leaders about what lead us into war. We will never hear the truth as long as this is only in the hands of the political leaders.

[dusty64]

11. A little late to do

anything about it. They really ought to require IQ tests to run for office, don't ya think.

[BiggJawn]

13. Especially in the House.

"...They really ought to require IQ tests to run for office..."

Maybe I'm just older and more observant now, but I have noticed since the Days of Newt that your average congress-critter is pretty stupid. Rich, but stupid. Used to get attorneys and legal scholars in office, now we get retired (or failed) businessmen who's only qualification for office is that they're ReTHUGlicans and have a lot of money to blow on a campaign...

Or, as in the case of my OWN congress-critter, a stupid attorney who's claim to fame is that he was a JAG interregator in Gulf War I....

[kentuck]

12. Sorry, but they all need to be replaced....

America can do better than that degree of incompetence.

[struggle4progress]

14. kick for leaving the sinking ship

:kick:

[maddezmom]

15. Some???

I'd bet it's most.