Reply #61: I am sorry, but I think the IWR was a good vote, and a good policy

[Ravy]

fucked up by Bush.

The sanctions we put on the people of Iraq were killing hundreds of thousand (or millions). It was clearly *not* a good thing to keep going. With *any* possibility that Saddam was continuing a WMD program, we needed to go back in with weapons inspectors and check it out. He had kicked out weapons inspectos before, and after they were put back in, he denied them access to some facilities. But they had been out of there for four years.

Some of the powers-that-be in the UN were making considerable cash from the Oil for Food program, so the UN was not going to act. Our planes were getting targeted by Iraq as they were enforcing the no-fly zone.

The IWR led to the resolution (approved 10-0) to put weapons inspectors back in. They should have been allowed to complete their work, Saddam was not an obstruction this time, and in fact, he was seeking asylum if he could find another country to take him.

If the weapons inspectors had come back with a clean bill of health, the new Iraq government would have had the sanctions lifted and we would be applauding the brave votes of the people who voted for the IWR and made it all possible.

Bush and his cronies fucked it up, and I refuse to let them off the hook by saying that he was only doing what Congress wanted him to do.