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2002 |
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What if Saddam Hussein "fails to comply, and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to develop his program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction." |
"Saddam Hussein didn't kill 3,100 people on Sept. 11," he said. "Osama bin Laden did, and as far as we know he's still alive." "I also believe we might do more good for American security in the short run at far less cost by beefing up our efforts in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere to flesh out the entire network."
Regarding Saddam's WMD's, Clinton said, "He has maximum incentive not to use this stuff. If we go, he has maximum incentive to use it because he knows he's going to lose." |
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"Look, we have exhausted virtually our diplomatic effort to get the Iraqis to comply with their own agreements and with international law. Given that, what other option is there but to force them to do so?' That's what they're saying. This is the key question. And the answer is we don't have another option. We have got to force them to comply, and we are doing so militarily."
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"I really haven't made up my mind at all." "Some of our questions were answered but there are a lot more out there that need to be addressed before we can make any conclusive decision on what needs to be done. "Preemptive strikes are not something we do. And for us to depart from that practice and take this action requires I think very careful deliberation and that's what we're going to give it." "There will be those who will support the President under any circumstances. There will be those who probably will never be satisfied that there is adequate cause for an invasion any time in the foreseeable future. There is a large number of people in the middle, and I'm one of them." |
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"If there is not unfettered, unrestricted, unlimited access per the U.N. resolution for inspections, and UNSCOM cannot in our judgment appropriately perform its functions, then we obviously reserve the rights to press that case internationally and to do what we need to do as a nation in order to be able to enforce those rights," Kerry said February 23, 1998. "Saddam Hussein has already used these weapons and has made it clear that he has the intent to continue to try, by virtue of his duplicity and secrecy, to continue to do so. That is a threat to the stability of the Middle East. It is a threat with respect to the potential of terrorist activities on a global basis. It is a threat even to regions near but not exactly in the Middle East." |
"If Saddam Hussein is unwilling to bend to the international community's already existing order, then he will have invited enforcement, even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act. But until we have properly laid the groundwork and proved to our fellow citizens and our allies that we really have no other choice, we are not yet at the moment of unilateral decision-making in going to war against Iraq." (September 6, 2002 NYTimes Op Ed)
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| Two things have changed since 1998:
Only one conclusion is evident: The Democrats are playing politics with the lives of American citizens.
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