Did Dems Mislead on Saddam's WMD Threat?
Even if it turned out that Saddam Hussein never possessed a
single weapon of mass destruction (and it won't), Democrats have a huge problem
trying to sell the idea that President Bush misled the nation when he warned
about Iraq's WMD threat.
Why? Because they voiced the same warnings repeatedly as far back as 1998.
"Fox News Sunday" host Tony Snow did a deft job yesterday carving up war
critic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, resurrecting rhetoric from the West Virginia
Democrat's 2002 addresses that sounded like they could have been written by Dick
Cheney's speechwriters.
Today Andrew Sullivan's Web site offers a few more blasts from Democrats'
recent past, comments that make their current complaints about the White House's
Iraq war "fraud" sound downright hysterical.
Here, for instance, is what anti-war Sens. Carl Levin, Tom Daschle and John
Kerry had to say on Oct. 9, 1998, in a letter to the White House:
"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S.
Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions [including, if appropriate, air
and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites] to respond effectively to the threat
posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."
Two months later, peacenik and current House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
offered her own two cents on the threat posed by Saddam:
"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass
destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has
made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."
Then there's Sen. Hillary Clinton, who in November of last year tried to
argue that the Bush family merely wanted to settle an old score with Saddam. A
month earlier, however, the former first lady warned:
"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that
Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock,
his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid,
comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members. It is clear,
however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his
capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to
develop nuclear weapons."
Here's more from Sen. Kerry, who called on Bush to apologize yesterday for
misleading the nation about Saddam's WMDs, but two months before the U.S.
attacked was urging action:
"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam
Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the
production and storage of weapons of mass destruction. ... [W]ithout question,
we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an
oppressive regime. ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is
so consistently prone to miscalculation. And now he has continued deceit and his
consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction. ... So the threat of Saddam
Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real. ..."
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