Reply #71: Do you really want to know?

[Noisy Democrat]

Sometimes people ask about Kerry's IWR vote just as a rhetorical point. But if you really want the answer, it's that he believed -- and said very clearly at the time -- that the IWR vote was to give Bush authority so he could pressure Saddam to let the weapons inspectors back in. And it worked -- the inspectors went back in, for the first time since 1998. Then Bush launched an unnecessary war anyway.

Last year, Kerry said explicitly that he *would not have invaded Iraq*. He also said that he didn't regret his IWR vote because he thought that giving Bush the authority *to get the weapons inspectors back in* was appropriate. But he strongly criticized Bush for misusing the authority.

Now, with the DSM revelations and other evidence that Bush was lying that's come out in the last several months, he says he would not have voted the same way on the IWR if he had known everything we know now.