John Kerry has a new position on the Iraq war – and there is little nuance in it.
“Invading Iraq was a crisis of historic proportions and, if we do not change course, there is the prospect of a war with no end in sight,” Kerry said yesterday.
He said he would not have overthrown Saddam Hussein had he been in the White House, and he accused President Bush of “stubborn incompetence,” dishonesty and colossal failures of judgment.
Just 40 days ago, Kerry had a remarkably different position when asked by a group of reporters, if, “knowing what we know now,” would he have voted to give the president the authority to go to war in Iraq.
“Yes, I would have voted for the authority,” said Kerry. “I believe it was the right authority for a president to have.”
Yesterday, he accused Bush of misusing that power by rushing to war without the backing of allies, a post-war plan or proper equipment for U.S. troops.
“None of which I would have done,” Kerry said.
“Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place in hell,” he added. “But that was not, in itself, a reason to go to war. The satisfaction we take in his downfall does not hide this fact: We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure.”
Bush responded in kind, interpreting the comment to mean that Kerry believes U.S. security would be better with Saddam still in power.
“He’s saying he prefers the stability of a dictatorship to the hope and security of democracy,” the Republican incumbent said.
“Today, my opponent continued his pattern of twisting in the wind,” Bush said at a New Hampshire rally. “He apparently woke up this morning and has now decided, No, we should not have invaded Iraq, after just last month saying he would have voted for force even knowing everything we know today.”
Kerry seems to be at odds with his own recent positions on the war – not just with Bush.
On Jan. 11 of this year, NBC’S Tim Russert asked Kerry: “You said this about Howard Dean, and this is, I think, at the core of your candidacy against Howard Dean.’ … those who believe we are not safer with [Saddam Hussein’s] capture don’t have the judgment to be President — or the credibility to be elected president.’ As we speak this Sunday morning, aenator, do you believe that Howard Dean does not have the judgment to be president or the credibility to be elected president?”
Kerry responded: “I think the judgment of a nominee who doesn’t understand that having Saddam Hussein captured will make it extraordinarily difficult to be able to beat an incumbent wartime president who captured Saddam Hussein. And let me tell you why, Tim. Saddam Hussein took us to war once before. In that war, young Americans were killed. He went to war in order to take over the oil fields. It wasn’t just an invasion of Kuwait. He was heading for the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. And that would have had a profound effect on the security of the United States. This is a man who has used weapons of mass destruction, unlike other people on this Earth today, not only against other people but against his own people. This is a man who tried to assassinate a former president of the United States, a man who lobbed 36 missiles into Israel in order to destabilize the Middle East, a man who is so capable of miscalculation that he even brought this war on himself. This is a man who, if he was left uncaptured, would have continued to be able to organize the Ba’athists. He would have continued to terrorize the people, just in their minds, because of 30 years of terror in Iraq.”
Back on Dec. 11, 2001, Kerry told Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly: “[I] think we ought to put the heat on Saddam Hussein. I’ve said that for a number of years, Bill. I criticized the Clinton administration for backing off of the inspections, when Ambassador (Richard) Butler was giving us strong evidence that we needed to continue. I think we need to put the pressure on, no matter what the evidence is about September 11. …”
Three days later, he told CNN’s Larry King: “I think we clearly have to keep the pressure on terrorism globally. This doesn’t end with Afghanistan by any imagination. And I think the president has made that clear. I think we have made that clear. Terrorism is a global menace. It’s a scourge. And it is absolutely vital that we continue, for instance, Saddam Hussein.”
Kerry was asked Feb. 5, 2002, by MSNBC’S Chris Matthews: “Do you think that the problem we have with Iraq is real and it can be reduced to a diplomatic problem? Can we get this guy to accept inspections of those weapons of mass destruction potentially and get past a possible war with him?” His response: “Outside chance, Chris. Could it be done? The answer is yes. But he would view himself only as buying time and playing a game, in my judgment. Do we have to go through that process? The answer is yes. We’re precisely doing that. And I think that’s what Colin Powell did today.”
Even more to the point, Kerry said July 29, 2002, in a speech to the Democratic Leadership Conference, “I agree completely with this administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq. …”
In the Democratic presidential candidates’ debate May 3, 2003, he said: “I said at the time I would have preferred if we had given diplomacy a greater opportunity, but I think it was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein, and when the president made the decision, I supported him, and I support the fact that we did disarm him.”
Yesterday, however, it was Kerry questioning Bush as to why he hadn’t yet changed his mind about Iraq.
“Yet today, President Bush tells us that he would do everything all over again, the same way. How can he possibly be serious?” asked Kerry at New York University. “Is he really saying to Americans that if we had known there were no imminent threat, no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to al-Qaida, the United States should have invaded Iraq? My answer is resoundingly no because a commander in chief’s first responsibility is to make a wise and responsible decision to keep America safe.”
Kerry also characterized Bush’s persistence and single-mindedness about Iraq as “stubborn incompetence.”
Last December, however, Democratic primary rival Howard Dean said the world was not safer with Saddam out of power. Kerry strongly disagreed. Anybody who believes that, Kerry said, doesn’t “have the judgment to be president.”
Reading that quote to his GOP crowd yesterday, Bush cracked: “I could not have said it better.”
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