This speech just might come back to bite Kerry in the butt

[Ugnmoose]

http://www.nationalreview.com/document/kerry200401261431.asp

We Must be Firm with Saddam Hussein
What John Kerry said, circa 1997.

A Primary Document

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a speech by John Kerry, delivered on the Senate floor on Nov. 9, 1997, as recorded in the Congressional Record.

<snip>
As the world's only current superpower, we have the enormous responsibility not to exhibit arrogance, not to take any unwitting or unnecessary risks, and not to employ armed force casually. But at the same time it is our responsibility not to shy away from those confrontations that really matter in the long run. And this matters in the long run.

While our actions should be thoughtfully and carefully determined and structured, while we should always seek to use peaceful and diplomatic means to resolve serious problems before resorting to force, and while we should always seek to take significant international actions on a multilateral rather than a unilateral basis whenever that is possible, if in the final analysis we face what we truly believe to be a grave threat to the well-being of our Nation or the entire world and it cannot be removed peacefully, we must have the courage to do what we believe is right and wise.

Editorial:
Kerry was on the record here of laying out a case for a limited coalition or the U.S. alone to take preemptive action. And he voted to carry it out in 2003. His only way out is to go on the record and say that he fully believed all of the Intelligence data given him and that in the end he was thoroughly convinced without any reasonable doubt that Saddam posed an imminent threat to the U.S. and its allies.

[blm]

1. Why? Clinton bombing Iraq in 98 likely decimated what WMDs Iraq had left.

And that was in accordance to the UN resolution that they were enforcing at the time.

[ibegurpard]

3. If you really believe that

why would you believe Kerry's explanations that he believed that Iraq had WMDs in 2002???!!!

[sandnsea]

2. This gives him credibility

He supported confronting Saddam and always has, in the right way. And 1997 was before Clinton's bombing which was why we need to go back to the beginning with inspections in 2002. Doing it the right way, that's what he has ALWAYS said. And if he had been President, he would have let the inspections process work as long as was necessary. He has said that too. It was NOT a political vote.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. But I thought his vote on IWR was unprincipled and political?

which is it Kerry haters?

What he has gone on record and said was that Bush lied...about all the things we NOW know he lied about..yellow cake etc.

He has also gone on record and said Bush fucked up the war in the manner he did.

To see the difference between Dem war strategies and Repubs..look at Kosovo.