Past As Prologue? How Senators Voted On Iraq And Kosovo

[frazzled]

1. Since each of these geopolitical situations is/was different ...

the variation of voting patterns for each should not surprise us. Sure, there are those who always oppose any kind of intervention (from the far libertarian right, for reasons of isolationism, to the far antiwar left, because they oppose any military action). But most elected officials take the analysis of situations in which military force is used in its own right, and judge on the merits. (Well, a few do it for political reasons.)

What is distressing to me is that very few of us are really discussing this particular situation. Mostly, we're just re-arguing Iraq. But this certainly is not in any way Iraq, and no decision that is made this time--for or against a military strike--will make Iraq go away or change what was wrongly done then. It's time to look at the particulars of acting or not acting in this very different situation, with very different motivations and very different actors. We shouldn't be looking at Iraq or Kosovo.