Sadly, Democrats played a role

[karynnj]

115. Nearly all the quotes there are taken out of context - and have been used by the right to say that

Democrats were as guilty as Republicans.

All the Congressional comments in the late 1990s were made when there was a resolution that stopped short of speaking of a US attack. Saying that Saddam was guilty of crimes is NOT equivalent to starting a war. This resolution in fact may have made it harder for Democrats to vote no on the IWR if they voted for this when Clinton was President.

Another thing that is done is that they ignore what was known in October 2002 - when inspectors had not been there for 4 years - and March 2003 - after the inspectors were in for 5 months. It did NOT require certainty that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction to vote yes. The intelligence presented just had to show they were a reasonable possibility. The problem with the IWR was not that, but that it prematurely gave Bush approval to go to war IF necessary -- and there were no teeth to the provisions under which it was approved.

The last one by Kerry was part of a speech that when covered - and the coverage was meager - was that he said that the US should not rush to war. In fact, that quoted part of the speech was where he was agreeing that there was a need for the invasive inspections and holding Saddam accountable --- it was followed by him saying that there was still diplomatic opportunities and that the inspections should be allowed to continue. He said that we should not rush to war and he said that if we did at this point it would not be a war of last resort. (The latter are strong words from a practicing Catholic said at Georgetown University - a Jesuit college. They mean it would not be a just war.)

As to his IWR speech, the reason his quote is so short is that the part before that lists the steps Bush publicly he would take if given the authorization. Kerry then said that if he did not do these things, he would speak out -- which he did.