Responsibility and the Iraq War

Can someone who voted for the Iraq War criticize the war he voted for?

That question is being raised against John Kerry in particular by hawks like columnists Charles Krauthammer and Linda Chavez as well as by war skeptic Joan Walsh. Kerry voted for the 2002 resolution authorizing Bush to go to war in Iraq. Now he's criticizing the dangerous mess Bush and Rummy have put our troops into there. Kerry's critics charge him with hypocrisy, inconsistency, changing his position.

I doubt it will be a political liability for him. After all, a large portion of the voting public made that same journey over the last year, from supporting the President on Iraq (with varying degrees of reservations) to asking, "How did we get into such a spot?"

My reaction to that line of attack - which could apply to a number of other Congressional war critics - is, "Gee, a politician hedged his bets? Gosh, whoever heard of such a thing?" More seriously, members of Congress who voted for war are morally obligated to follow the progress of the war with a critical eye. The real question is why more of them, especially Republicans, aren't raising questions over the missing "weapons of mass destruction" and the obvious problems our troops now face.

Chavez seems particularly eager to make Kerry sound like he was saying he had been duped, relating it to a comment along those lines that embarassed Republican Presidential aspirant George Romney 35 years ago.

But here, too, it seems to me that those who voted for war, and those like Krauthammer who cheered for it, should be out front demanding answers about cooked intelligence used to justify the war.

Don't get me wrong. My own view is that Congress shirked its responsibility last fall by hurriedly passing the war resolution without asking more hard questions, e.g., about the "WMD" claims.

But if some of those who were too hasty in voting for war are learning from their mistake, so much the better.

- Bruce Miller

Tags: iraq war, john kerry