Lincoln Chafee Interview: "Everyone Was Silent" On Iraq

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As the war in Iraq completes its fifth year this week, The Huffington Post is featuring interviews with and essays by those journalists, elected officials, policymakers and former military officials who spoke out early and boldly against what they saw as an inevitable disaster. They join our Iraq Honor Roll.

Lincoln Chafee: "Everyone Was Silent"
The Only Republican Senator to Oppose Iraq War Authorization Speaks Out

In the fall of 2002, as the United States Senate was granting the White House authorization to go to war in Iraq, only one Republican member of that body opposed the course of action. Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Rhode Island Republican, served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time that he expressed his skepticism. In his view, the administration had clearly failed to make its case to invade Iraq. Nor did he believe that the attacks on 9/11 were connected to Saddam Hussein. History, so far, has proved Chafee prescient.

In the summer of 2007, Chafee formally abandoned the Republican Party after loosing his re-election run to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse.

In this interview with The Huffington Post, he recounts how, at the time he opposed the initial war authorization, he felt like a sheep amidst the wolves.

Read on: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/13/lincoln-chafee-interview_n_91444.html

[Clear Blue Sky]

1. Check the vote

The vote to authorize the use of the military against Iraq passed 77-23. Far from being silent, over 3/4 of the Senate voted in favor, including Senator Clinton.

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2. His meaning of silence was the lack of protest

He was against the war, and is still critical of it.