Kerry & Congress & the $87 Billion Backtrack

Do you know why Kerry voted for war against Iraq but voted against the funds to support it?

The answer is simpler than you think.

Some in Congress are more likely to vote for a use of force if they are assured that only certain types of weapons will be used (not ground troops), or no military action will be taken. Remember when the U.S. launched major air strikes in Iraq in 1998 (Operation Desert Fox) to force Saddam to allow arms inspectors back into Iraq? The not-hawks in Congress were pushing for military action then, fully realizing that then-President Clinton wouldn’t use all the military force he had available to force the issue. In fact, Clinton was dragging his feet, which made the not-hawks even more bombastic about authorizing the use of force, because they knew that Clinton was going to limit his military options or go for a diplomatic solution and forget about using force. In fact, military action had been delayed the month before (Operation Desert Viper) due to Saddam agreeing to let the inspectors back in; the B-52s were airborne and twenty minutes away from launching their missiles, and Saddam knew it.

Well, the same thing happened when many in Congress (including Kerry) voted for the use of force against Iraq in 2003. When they realized that they had a President who was going to use the military firepower at his disposal, some of them backtracked (including Kerry), voting against the $87 billion in additional military spending for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This backtracking is right in line with their past history, so we shouldn’t be too surprised that this has been a major campaign issue, and that Kerry has gotten massacred in this area.

The simple fact is that the not-hawks gambled, lost and then backtracked, which has lead to Bush having a huge stick to beat Kerry with repeatedly and often.

This is an example of what happens when politics interferes with good common sense.

They voted to send our military off to war, then didn’t back up their vote under the pretense that money was being spent in this congressional district, but not that one. No, no, no. They got cold feet, pure and simple.

For those that are interested, “not-hawk” = war hawk…not!