"BushII doesn't Need Congressional Approval for War with Iraq.."

[Tellurian]

Clintons urge caution on action against Iraq

August 31, 2002

Said...Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton during a visit to the New York State Fair on Friday.

SYRACUSE, New York (CNN) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton urged the Bush administration to use caution before any military action against Iraq.

Describing her visit to U.S. soldiers injured in Afghanistan and recovering at Washington's Walter Reed Medical Center, the Democratic New York senator asked President Bush to seek congressional approval before any attack on Iraq.

"I have personal faces I can put on this debate, and I want to be sure that the president comes with his arguments and information and evidence and that we debate it, and then as a nation we'll stand behind the decision," she said while attending a state fair in upstate New York.

"Administration lawyers have concluded President Bush doesn't need congressional approval to launch an attack on Iraq, although White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president would consult Congress.

Fleischer did not say whether consultation would include a congressional vote approving military action, as was done before the Gulf War in 1991.

The former president said the U.S. military could easily win an attack on Iraq and displace its leader, Saddam Hussein, but he questioned whether it should be done.

"Everybody knows that he's been a thug, hasn't been good for his people, hasn't been good for the region. There's no question people would be better off without him," Clinton said, but warned: "You don't do things just because you can."

While he said he has no doubt the Iraqi leader has stocks of biological and chemical weapons, and has used them on his own people, Clinton said there should be a "large-scale public debate" on whether to wage war.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/08/31/clinton.iraq/index.html

Well, that throws out the argument that those who voted 'for or against' the War could have made any difference! Bush was going to War with or without their Vote!

[Tellurian]

1. Framing the Iraq War Vote as part of the centerpiece of Obama's Campaign

flaming Hillary for it and all who voted IS just plain wrong.

[Forkboy]

2. Then voting yes was not only stupid but pointless.

Unless of course she thought the war would be over by now and would be a campaign plus. :think:

[Tellurian]

4. Bush's rush to war was based on the premise of Pre-emptive Strike.

In his SOTU Address, he made it clear the country was at a high risk for another attack post 9/11. If you read Hillary's floor statement the last things she said in it..."Attacking Iraq should be a last resort measure if our country is under an eminent threat"...Bush made his case during the SOTU Address. Sending Powell to the UN for further authentication in a televised speech.

As Bush said, he was going to War with out without Congressional approval.

[Forkboy]

20. Oh, I agree Bush was going regardless.

But that means she (and the others who voted for it) had a choice between the right but meaningless thing to do or the wrong but meaningless thing to do. I wonder why they chose the wrong one, and my suspicion is because it was politically expedient. Unfortunately we're closing in on a million dead for that gamble.

[The Magistrate]

6. You Are On To Something There, Sir

Among the national assets frittered away by this administration was an enviable reputation for invincibility built up for the U.S. armed forces in the preceeding decade, culminating in the Kossovo campaign. Most people who do not think deeply on military affairs did take it for granted that the U.S, would prevail swiftly and solidly in Iraq, once our nation's forces were committed to the task. Victory is popular, and popularly felt to be its own justification, and so among the considerations weighing the minds of political figures then was that open opposition to what would likely become the achievement of solid victory would leave those who engaged in it laughingstocks. When this is combined with the undoubted knowledge that the administration would not be balked by a Senate rejection of an enabling resolution, but would simply proceed, and after a predictable blood-bath among Democratic Senators in the fall, ram any measure it felt proper through a wholly cowed Congress at the last minute the following January, the calculations that moved most votes on that measure become obvious.

[cuke]

9. If not for their votes

the repukes would have passed an even more odious war resolution which could have passed without one single dem vote. And then there were dems like Lieberman and Miller who were happy to do whatever bush* wanted. Add to that the speeches they gave calling for caution and additional UN resolutions and it becomes obvious that the vote was an effort to slow down the rush to war.

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. Well stated Magistrate

I think that is exactly how the politics of it played out. There were too few profiles in courage to be found in Congress in 2002.

[The Magistrate]

17. Thank You, Mr. Rinaldo

You views are always worth great consideration.

[Tellurian]

13. Yes, I don't know if it is selective amnesia on the part of some, ruminating

in a state of denial, not following the sequence of events during the run up to the war. Or is an act of convenience casting Sen Clinton in a totally unjustified "bad" light for her vote, because it makes a good case for their candidate's electability?

[slick8790]

3. So then why are you constantly bashing John Edwards for co-sponsoring and voting for it?

Doesn't matter, right? Bush was going anyway.

[Tellurian]

5. Why is Obama using Hillary's Vote as a platform for saying he is the better candidate?

[slick8790]

7. Because he had the judgement to oppose it when she didn't?

Whether or not Bush was going to war anyway, you can't argue she made the right vote.

[Tellurian]

8. With Obama's voting history, if he had been a senator then, he probably would have voted "present."

Like he did when he didn't want to take a stand on the State's Abortion Bill.

[slick8790]

11. Granted, I can't say what Obama would have done.

But I know what Hillary did do.

[Tellurian]

14. And now you have it in black and white, Hillary's vote made no difference at all to the outcome!

Of War with Iraq!

[slick8790]

19. Perhaps it didn't.

But wouldn't it be nice to have someone who votes the right way, even if it didn't matter?

[jenmito]

10. It's a moot point. Hillary STILL said she voted for it after consulting her husband.

It doesn't matter whether or not Bush needed authority from Congress. Either Hillary or Bill still lied.

[Tellurian]

15. And Bill said he was against it from the start..

[jenmito]

16. Yet Hillary voted FOR it claiming it was after consulting with Bill.

If he was against it, he would've advised her to vote against it. Hillary is 60.

[jenmito]

18. AND Hillary voted against the Levin-Reid amendment whidh called for more diplomacy...

after consulting with her husband.

[cali]

21. so did John Edwards. And both voted against the Durbin

Amendment as well. Of the major candidates, Obama is the only one who's clean on the IWR.

[jenmito]

22. Exactly.

That's why Obama's the best candidate for our party.