Fitzgerald vs. the Bush Administration
…The Democrats complicity in the Iraq saga goes much deeper than their willful support of Bush’s war resolution in 2002. How soon we forget that back in 1998, President Clinton signed into law the Iraq Liberation Act drafted by the same Republican hawks that helped thrust forth Bush’s own Iraq policy including; Republican staffer Randy Scheunemann, Donald Rumsfeld, former-CIA director R. James Woosley, and Ahmad Chalabi.
As I discuss in greater detail in Left Out!, Clinton’s legislation outlined the US’s ultimate objective for its involvement in Iraq. That is, to remove Saddam and overthrow his government. When Clinton signed his legislation into law in mid-October 1996, Republican Senator Trent Lott sang his praises: “The Clinton administration regularly calls for bipartisanship in foreign policy. I support them when I can. Today, we see a clear example of a policy that has the broadest possible bi-partisan support. I know the Administration understands the depth of our feeling on this issue.”
Despite Lott’s gratitude, Iraq wasn’t just a Republican issue the Democrat’s had also long propagated falsehoods about Saddam’s potential WMD threat.
“If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear,” President Clinton admitted in February of 1998. “We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program.”
In a letter to President Clinton, Democratic Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry among others wrote in October of 1998, “[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq’s refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs.”
The Iraq invasion isn’t just about the Democrats buying into Bush’s propaganda. Despite popular belief, the Dems had not been duped. The illegal invasion of Iraq was a result of a concert of bi-partisan lies that spewed from the US government over many years. The Democrats were and are just as responsible for the bloodthirsty deceptions as the Republicans.
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