The Fifth Anniversary of the Iraq War Resolution: Why We Can’t Forgive or Forget

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/10/4445/

The Fifth Anniversary of the Iraq War Resolution: Why We Can’t Forgive or Forget

by Stephen Zunes

This week marks the fifth anniversary of the congressional vote granting President George W. Bush unprecedented war-making authority to invade Iraq at the time and circumstances of his own choosing. Had a majority of either the Republican-controlled House or the Democratic-controlled Senate voted against the resolution or had they passed an alternative resolution conditioning such authority on an authorization from the United Nations Security Council, all the tragic events that have unfolded as a consequence of the March 2003 invasion would have never occurred.

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Seven of the 77 senators who voted to authorize the invasion - Fred Thompson (R-TN), John McCain (R-AZ), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Joseph Biden (D-DE), and John Edwards (D-NC) are now running for president. While the Republicans candidates remain unapologetic, the Democratic candidates have sought to distance themselves from their vote, arguing that what is important in choosing a president is not how they voted in the past, but what she or he would do now.

Such efforts to avoid responsibility should be rejected out of hand. While I personally support a full withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq as soon as logistically feasible, there is considerable debate among knowledgeable, ethical, and intelligent people - including those who also opposed the invasion - as to what to do now. No reasonable person, however, could have supported the resolution authorizing the invasion five years ago.

On this and other web sites - as well as in many scores of policy reports, newspaper articles, academic journals and other sources - the tragic consequences of a U.S. invasion of Iraq and a refutation of falsehoods being put forward by the Bush administration to justify it were made available to every member of the House and Senate (see, for example, The Case Against a War with Iraq). The 2003 vote authorizing the invasion was not like the vote on the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution on the use of force against North Vietnam, for which Congress had no time for hearings or debate and for which most of those supporting it (mistakenly) thought they were simply authorizing limited short-term retaliatory strikes in response to a specific series of alleged incidents. By contrast, in regard to the resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq, Congress had many months to investigate and debate the administration’s claims that Iraq was a threat as well as the likely implications of a U.S. invasion; members of Congress also fully recognized that the resolution authorized a full-scale invasion of a sovereign nation and a subsequent military occupation of an indefinite period.

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I fully agree with this article. If we give Dems who voted for this a pass, then what will happen the next time a war resolution comes around? Will the Dems change their mind and vote AGAINST it, knowing full well that they could get away with voting FOR it????

Obama '08.

Is the candidate publicly anouncing the change of mind? Is the candidate voting differently now? Does the candidate submit bills to Congress to make positive changes?

If not, there is no sign that anything other than spinning has occurred.

"While I personally support a full withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq as soon as logistically feasible, there is considerable debate among knowledgeable, ethical, and intelligent people - including those who also opposed the invasion - as to what to do now. No reasonable person, however, could have supported the resolution authorizing the invasion five years ago."

NT

It may even be that the resolution worked, to the extent that it could. There was a story recently that Saddam had offered to resign shortly before the invasion... the kind of result that political pressure is intended to achieve.