Joe Biden's Vote for War

[karynnj]

24. As importantly, before the vote Blix was NOT in Iraq

The Republicans have worked hard to equate the vote, which was in October 2002 -- before the inspectors were in and found nothing --and Bush taking the country to war in March 2003. So many people - even in 2005 or so thought that the vote and the invasion were very close in time.

In fact, given that Iraq DID let the inspectors in and gave them the right to look anywhere - unannounced, Bush COULD have achieved a REAL victory by converting the inspections into permanent oversight and declared that he had eliminated the threat of Iraq breaking out. (You can also think of how Obama/Kerry used the threat of an attack on Syria into eliminating 1200 tons of chemical weapons - something that would not have happened had there been no threat of war.)