ya know, there may be a way for Kerry to change his Iraq position . . .

[OneBlueSky]

without looking like a "flip-flopper" . . . I haven't thought this through completely, but I've been wondering if maybe he shouldn't just come right out and apologize to the American people (and the Iraqis) for his vote to give the shrub authority to attack Iraq . . .

don't jump down my throat just yet . . . the reason he can give is that he believed the president which, in light of what has happened since, he now understands was a mistake . . . he might say something like this (re-written by professionals, of course):

"I supported the Iraq resolution for one reason and one reason only: I believed President Bush. I believed him when he said, in his inaugural address, that the United States would exercise humility in its foreign policy. I believed him when he said that, if granted the authority to go to war, he would only do so with the support of a broad coalition of other nations. And I believed him when he said that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction that represented a clear and present danger to the security of the United States.

"Today, ___ months later, it has become clear to all of us that each of these presidential statements was false. In my ___ years in the Senate, I have never before encountered such patently false presidential claims and assertions in crucial matters of foreign policy. I believed President Bush. But I have since come to realize what a terrible mistake that was.

"So, again, I extend my sincere apologies to my fellow citizens, and to the people of Iraq. I also offer my personal guarantee that something like this will never happen in the Kerry administration. Each and every foreign policy claim -- and particularly those involving committing our sons and daughters to combat -- will be thoroughly investigated and discussed so that our actions are always based on accurate and truthful information to the maximum extent possible. Before we commit US troops to hostilities we will know, at minimum, what the facts really are. And we will know that, based on those facts, there is no other acceptable course of action. The use of our military in foreign wars will always be our last resort, and never, ever our first option.

"Since time has proven that what the president told us about Iraq was not true, I have no choice but to withdraw my support of the current US policy regarding that country. As president, I will develop and implement a new Iraq policy, one that will bring America's troops home and out of harm's way as soon as possible.

"Does this mean that the Kerry administration will immediately withdraw all of our troops from Iraq? Unfortunately, no. As Secretary of State Colin Powell is reported to have said to President Bush prior to the Iraq invasion, "If we break it, we bought it." By which he meant that an invasion would carry with it a responsiblity on the part of the United States to repair whatever damage we cause and to leave Iraq no worse than how we found it. The war in Iraq has crippled that country's infrastructure, destroyed its government, devastated is public services such as health care and education, and left countless families without their primary breadwinners. Our new policy for Iraq must recognize that "we broke it," and include provisions for correcting or at least mitigating the damage that has been done by our forces and in our name to the maximum extent possible.

"The war in Iraq should never have happened. While I am has pleased as everyone else that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power, I cannot in good conscience justify the price we have paid for his removal -- hundreds of billions of US tax dollars and, more significantly, the lives of a thousand US servicemen and women and uncounted thousands of Iraqi citizens.

"So I ask the American people to understand the predicament that trusting our president presented, and to accept my sincere regrets that I allowed this trust to be so misplaced. I promise you that I will do all in my power to prevent this kind of mistake from ever happening again -- either in the remaining days of the Bush administration, or during the Kerry administration."

or something like that . . .

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Even simpler

The President -- and his team -- lied to us.

I believed him.

It wasn't about something small. It was about something big, a grudge-match war that has cost hundreds of billions of dollars and killed thousands of people.

That's why he has to go.

--bkl

[JI7]

2. politics is not a religion

[wiggs]

3. Or...

"Given what I know now about lack of WMD in Iraq I would be still be tempted to vote for IWR so that the threat of force would help the UN inspectors do their job. This is why I voted for IWR in the first place.

However, given what I now know about George W. Bush, there's no way in hell I would give him the authority to go to war."

[Old and In the Way]

4. And throw in that Bush has damaged the Office of the Presidency

because he lied to futher his narrow political/economic agenda at the expense of our country's historically bi-partisan approach to national security.

The ramifications of what Bush has done will be felt by future Presidents who must make a bi-partisan case when confronted with issues of national security.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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