Never heard this about Bill Clinton before - surely she mispoke?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

Hillary Mann Leverett (American University on MSNBC Up with Kornacke)

Referring to supporting a war in Iraq .

She said, "I remember going with a key member of the Bush national security team to see President Clinton and he put his arm around her and told her that not only was the intel right, but that she was doing the right thing morally."

No one called her on it...do you think she meant Bush? Odd to get that wrong within once sentence

[Little Star]

1. I hope some one else chimes in. I missed that.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

8. I played it back a couple times to get it right.nt

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Given that Hillary voted for war (while most other Democrats didn't)

Bill's alleged actions seem pretty consistent.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. Yes, but I think Bill has been very good at keeping mum about his

feelings at the time. At least I haven't heard/read much about it.

You are right though.

At the time, it hadn't been that long since Bill was Prez and probably still
had a lot of influence over dems.

It would be interesting to learn more about his role in convincing Dems to go along with Bush

[blm]

10. We already know he met Dems before IWR vote. He also advised Blair

to stand solidly with Bush.

[Motown_Johnny]

26. She didn't just vote for it.

the long version:

a short snippet:

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Hillary voted for the war, as did Kerry and Biden and Hagel

Clearly they all believed the 'intel' John Kerry went on and on about the WMD that Saddam had, what a threat he was to our security...now he wonders why we don't jump when he shouts for war. Known to be easily duped. Known to have been very wrong when millions were very correct.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

7. Do you remember exactly how you felt during this time? I don't

exactly. I guess for me it was a combination of automatically being against war, already not trusting Bush (wonder why others there did), and having a strong desire to keep the goodwill toward the US going that we enjoyed after 9-11.

I wonder now if the true role of the Clintons (besides her vote) might have been a lot more than we thought.

[myrna minx]

13. I remember weeping as Senator Byrd implored an empty Senate chamber to not go to war.

I remember Senator Dayton as the only Senator who stayed behind to preside over the Senate to allow Senator Byrd make his impassioned case against the war. The war was all but a foregone conclusion at that point. I remember feeling ill and lost, because no one in the power structure was listening to the millions of protesters, Bush threw out the weapons inspectors and the media was in full "Navy Seals ROCK!!" cheer squad.

I remember being elated when Senator Wellstone, who was in the race of his career, told a small group of us in a upper duplex apartment in Uptown Minneapolis that he decided to vote no on the IWR. That was a bright spot in a foreboding landscape. I remember all too well.

If it wasn't for the good people of DU, I would have felt to alone.

[bigbrother05]

29. The fix/lie was confirmed by Powell at the UN

Watching it, it was clear as soon as I saw the photo of the alleged mobile weapons site. Looked like an oil field site with production trucks that could have been taken anywhere in West Texas.

They were too sure for it to be true. We now have the Analyzer in office, not the Decider.

[blm]

9. That's inaccurate. Kerry said he'd vote for IWR to assure that weapon inspectors

be given the time to look for WMDs first. He said he would stand with their decision and oppose war if Bush went to war without the discovery of WMDs. They went in and when they reported back that there were none found, Kerry sided with the weapon inspectors and publicly said that Bush should NOT invade.

Kerry was the ONLY one of the aye votes on IWR who publicly stood against Bush's DECISION to invade when weapon inspectors were reporting there were no WMDs found.


"Regime change in Iraq is a worthy goal. But regime change by itself is not a justification for going to war. Absent a Qaeda connection, overthrowing Saddam Hussein — the ultimate weapons-inspection enforcement mechanism should be the last step, not the first. Those who think that the inspection process is merely a waste of time should be reminded that legitimacy in the conduct of war, among our people and our allies, is not a waste, but an essential foundation of success.

"If we are to put American lives at risk in a foreign war, President Bush must be able to say to this nation that we had no choice, that this was the only way we could eliminate a threat we could not afford to tolerate." — John Kerry, We Still Have a Choice on Iraq, New York Times, September 6, 2002

Kerry believed the THREAT of force would be the only way to get Saddam to allow inspections. This is what he said continuously throughout that time, but, videos were edited down to eliminate context. Kerry's full statements show that he was never thinking that war was necessary, but that he was saying there were ways to AVOID war and that he viewed the threat of force as a component to a strategy to get weapon inspectors on the ground in Iraq.


LAT:
"If [the weapons inspectors] ask for more time, and it's under a reasonable framework, with an understanding that you can perhaps bring the French and Germans along and build your coalition ... it makes all the sense in the world to do that," Kerry said in the interview.

Kerry seemed to anticipate the Republican line of attack in his speech by distancing himself from those who "reflexively oppose" the use of U.S. military force and "place a higher value on achieving multilateral consensus" than protecting vital American interests.

"Americans deserve better than a false choice between force without diplomacy and diplomacy without force," Kerry said. He repeatedly described his approach as "bold, progressive internationalism."

On issues from Iraq and North Korea to global warming, Kerry charged, Bush's approach to foreign policy "has meant alienating our long-term friends and allies, alarming potential foes and spreading anti-Americanism around the world."
>>>

[Laura PourMeADrink]

15. That's where they got duped...believing Bush would wait and give inspectors

all the time they needed to be thoroughly convinced.

[karynnj]

17. Exactly

In 2003, when Kerry spoke of Bush lying us into war, the list he then repeated was that he did not let the inspectors finish, did not exhaust the diplomatic options, did not go as a last resort, etc. These were all things Bush promised - and some were even in the resolution - but failed to do.

He did not include that they lied by cherry picking the intel because until 2005, it was not provable that he did. In 2004, we knew there were no WMD, but we did not really know that the Bush administration already knew this was likely the case when they claimed it was a slam dunk. In 2005, the Downing Street memos showed that they manufactured the proof - and would have manufactured an incident with a plane in the no fly zone if needed.

[leveymg]

27. This is exactly why it is important to withhold any AUF until all questions are

answered and there is a real consensus about what happened, who is responsible,and what (if anything) the US and the world needs to do about it.

Obama needs to declassify ALL the intelligence and intercepts the Administration considered in making its initial decision. That needs to be done immediately, and it will show good faith. If he doesn't -- and we continue to hear the usual evasive BS about "sources and methods" there can be no consensus, and this might as well be 2003, all over again.

Nothing less than full disclosure and independent verification of all the evidence are acceptable in this case. Verify, the trust has been broken.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

31. Agree 100%

[LuvNewcastle]

19. I really don't care what Congress members say; I care about

how they vote. They can use all the rhetoric in the world to criticize a war, but if they vote to authorize it, they might as well be pro-war. If all of the people who believed that the war was unwise had voted against it, hundreds of thousands of people might still be alive today. Votes are the only thing that matter in Congress. Speeches are just talk.

[blm]

20. He DID stand against the decision to invade.

That IWR vote yes, gave him the standing and the attention to DO that. Standing with weapon inspectors over the WH was a bigger deal at the time, but, I guess you wouldn't be interested, since your black and white view of the world keeps you satisfied.

[LuvNewcastle]

21. It's not black and white thinking.

I'm talking about things that matter. What matters in Congress is the votes they make on the bills they consider. What if, say, Alan Grayson gets up before the House this week and loudly proclaims that this Syria action is wrong and shouldn't be done, and then turns around and votes to authorize it. What would you think of that? Or what if he complained about it, voted for it, and then said, "You know, I was against it all along." What would you say to that? In the end, the vote is what sends people off to die, and the vote is all that really matters.

[blm]

23. Except that vote didn't do that. Bush violated its premise.

And was going to invade no matter what the weapon inspectors said.

[joshcryer]

25. Everyone voting knew Bush's intentions.

Go read Hillary's speech on the invasion of Iraq. She was the only Senator to actually read a speech about it (everyone else just submitted a memo). And if you read between the lines she knew that he was going in.

[karynnj]

16. I think you have Edwards and Kerry confused

Kerry's comments ALL had IFs in them - ifs because he could not rule out Saddam having weapons of mass destruction because the inspectors had been out for 4 years and there was more there in 1991 than was expected. There was VERY LITTLE difference in that part of his speech than there was in Feingold's. The difference, Feingold refused to give authorization while Kerry argued that Congressional approval would give Bush more leverage to get tough inspections and better use diplomacy. (Note the echo in today's words)

You also ignore that Kerry's IWR speech spoke of all the things Bush promised to do -- and that he would go to war just as a last resort. He said he would speak out - which he did BEFORE the war began.

[DURHAM D]

4. From the run up to the Iraq invasion forward Clinton stated repeatedly

that during his time in office the intelligence community told him in no uncertain terms that Iraq had WMDs. So, as it turns out for a decade he was briefed with faulty intelligence.

I don't have the impression that Clinton thought he was being lied to, he was making the point that sometimes they just get it wrong, very wrong.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. Thanks...I need to read up on his statements about Iraq. nt

[Zorra]

11. Yeh, well, ol' Bill wasn't exactly known for his being completely truthful to the women in his life.

[nevergiveup]

12. I heard that

and at first I thought it was a misspeak but on second thought there is a good chance that Bush's national security team briefed Bill Clinton before the Iraq war. So perhaps Clinton did put his arm around Leverett and console her into believing it was the "right thing morally".

[Laura PourMeADrink]

14. No big deal, but it was the unnamed NS team member

he was talking to. Hillary was with "her".

A little about Hillary..

In the George W. Bush Administration, she worked as Director for Iran, Afghanistan and Persian Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council, Middle East expert on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, and Political Advisor for Middle East, Central Asian and African issues at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations

[blm]

18. Except Bill also advised Blair in 2002 to solidly side w/Bush on Iraq war

That is where the date of the Downing Street Memo comes in to play.


Bush was promising to manufacture the intel Blair would need to pull off a justification for war in the summer of 2002.

As Blair's TOP American advisor Clinton knew damn well by then that Bush was manufacturing the intel.

Clinton knew when he was advising DC Dems to vote for IWR that the intel was cooked.

http://downingstreetmemo.com/

[Laura PourMeADrink]

22. Why did he do that?

[blm]

24. People forget Bill wanted to attack Iraq when he was in office, but, ended up

deciding against it when he couldn't get other countries to go along with him. He limited action to airstrikes.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

28. You know BLM, this is really sad. when you think about it, in the most

abstract sense, the Clintons could possibly have stopped what happened. If he
had counseled with the Dems at the time and said "No Way"" or Bush/Cheney is
bullshitting you all." They are probably more complicit than anyone realizes or
have investigated and shed more light on. It probably explains why they
didn't speak out more later on the travesty of it all.

[blm]

30. Letterman asked Bill about Downing Street Memo, he said he hadn't heard

of it, which is completely bogus, since Senate Dems had sent around a petition letter to demand an investigation. Then he changed the subject.