Reply #95: No one voted to attack Iraq

[karynnj]

The vote was in October 2002 and even Bush said it was not a vote that meant we would go to war.

The decision to invade was in March 2003, after the inspectors were in and it was clear that the threat was nowhere near what was claimed in 2002.

I know that you are angry that Democrats, for whatever reason voted for it, but the passing of that resolution did not cause the war - nor could it have stopped it. The fact is that if all the Democrats who were not co-sponsors of the bill voted against it - it still would have passed. If 41 Democrats filibustered it, we would have been killed in the 2002 elections - and a resolution would have passed the new Congress in 2003. (With even one additional loss in 2002, we would not have won back the Senate in 2006.)

I think that most of the Democrats, like Clinton, who defend their vote defend it in the context within which it was made. They are not saying it ended up being a good vote, just that their motives were not to enable a war of choice.

The person you are inadvertently helping is Bush. He has said that he and "people in DC longer than him were fooled" by the intelligence failures. In fact, they manipulated the intelligence - and more importantly he made his decision in March 2003, not October 2002. Don't let Bush spread the blame more than is warranted.