In their own words: Liberals opposed to war in Iraq, gung-ho about attacking Kosovo

Sen. Joe Biden, Delaware Democrat, opposed the Gulf War, intervention in Somalia, Haiti, and Lebanon. But, he was all for going into Kosovo, drafting a resolution to give Clinton open-ended authority to use ground troops if he wanted, instead of just airstrikes.

The McCain-Biden resolution, brought forth in May 1999, “authorized the President to use all necessary force and other means, in concert with United States allies, to accomplish U.S. and NATO objectives in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).”

Prominent Democratic co-sponsors included: John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, Frank Lautenberg, and Chris Dodd. A vote was taken to table (kill) the amendment, and the amendment's opponents won. (They were mostly Republicans who wanted to see what would happen in Kosovo first, or at least wait until Clinton asked for ground-troop authority).

Among those Democrats who voted in support of the McCain-Biden (against tabling it) in addition to the sponsors: Patrick Leahy, Evan Bayh, Bob Graham, and Daniel Inoye.

John Kerry: "I have heard colleagues deeply disturbed--as anybody should be appropriately--about collateral damage and what happens in the bombing. I do not think there is an American, in good conscience, who does not feel pangs or deep reservations about any errant missile or errant bomb and what the effects are. But there is no moral equivalency whatsoever between those errant impacts and what we are trying to achieve and what Mr. Milosevic has been achieving. There is simply no moral equivalency. "

"The fact is that Senator Dodd from Connecticut pointed out, and others have pointed out, that what we do here can have a profound, long-lasting, deep impact on our capacity to negotiate, to pressure, and to speak about and stand for morality and for a standard of behavior that is different from the kind of killing and marauding that has governed so much of this century."

"This is staring us in the face. It is here. It is now. We are at war. The question we must ask ourselves is whether or not we are prepared to win or whether we are going to put obstacle after obstacle in front of ourselves to deprive ourselves of the capacity to achieve the goals that are achievable.

And though Clinton took action without the blessing of the United Nations (he went through the 18 more pliable NATO signatories), Kerry said: “This is not the United States essentially acting alone.”

More Kerry: “We are fighting for the standards of internationally accepted, universally accepted behavior that country after country has signed on to through United Nations conventions and other instruments of international law and through their own standards of behavior. I can't think of anything more right than taking a position against this kind of thuggery and this kind of effrontery to those standards as we leave the end of this century. "

“Some people say to me, ‘Well, Senator, we are going to have some people there for a long time.’ My answer is, So what? If that is what it takes in order to try to begin to establish a principle that is more long lasting, so be it.”

Sen. Joe Biden: “At the time of Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, we were essentially alone in the world in concluding that force need be used. With regard to Kosovo, we are in the majority. The entire civilized world, including the Russians, acknowledge that Milosevic is engaged in behavior that violates every notion of civilized conduct. They disagree on the means we should use to deal with that.”

[In other words, although the Russians disagree, we should deal with it as we see fit -- with war].

“There is one remaining dictator in the region. His name is Slobodan Milosevic. He is a bad guy. He is a smart bad guy. He is doing very bad things. The idea that the United States of America, when all of Europe has stood up and said this must stop, will walk away, I think is absolutely bizarre. Does anybody here truly believe we could stand aside, let this happen, and it not affect our vital interests in the year 2010 and 2012 and 2020 when my granddaughters and their husbands will be sent off? It seems to me we are making a gigantic mistake here to try to hide behind a lot of arguments.”

[Wasn't it just these sort of arguments that Biden was hiding behind until is third flip-flop on this issue the other day?]

Sen. Tom Daschle: “In the first instance, the courageous men and women who make up America's military forces are risking their lives daily in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to reverse the genocidal policies practiced by that country's leader. That is a just cause.“

And Little Tommy had this to say after the Kosovo campaign was over: "The President never wavered in his commitment to the alliance's goals of ending the atrocities in Kosovo , forcing the withdrawal of Serb forces from the region, and ensuring the safe return of Kosovar refugees to their homes. President Clinton's steadfast resolve, together with our NATO allies, forced President Milosevic to back down and accept NATO's conditions for a halt in the bombing campaign."

"It would appear that some of those who were most critical of the President's Kosovo policies were more concerned with waging a political assault than in stopping the Serbs' military assault on Kosovo . But now that the Serbs have conceded defeat, one can only hope that those who were so harshly critical of the President might concede they were mistaken.

Sen. Harry Reid (current assistant minority senate leader): "There are some, who were detractors, who referred to this as Clinton and Gore's war. No, it was not Clinton and Gore's war, but rather a war of those people of good will around the world, and certainly in this country, who detest evil, repudiate ethnic cleansing, and, in short, believe that atrocities by bullies like Slobodan Milosevic should be no more. "

So, I am confident and hopeful this will send a message to those around the world who feel they can maim and kill and displace those people with whom they disagree for purposes only they understand--the color of their skin, their religion--a message that this will no longer happen.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, March 11, 1999: "I applaud [two congressmen] for their impressive presentation on why we should be supporting the President's policy in Kosovo."

"Mr. Chairman, other speakers this evening have said that Kosovo, is a very difficult decision. Well, Kosovo i s a very difficult and dangerous place, and we are sent here, after all, to make the difficult decisions. I, for one, do not think that we, Congress, has a role in voting on whether the President should send peacekeepers into a region, so I do not think that this debate is a necessary one, and I think again that the timing of it is unfortunate. "

[In other words, let the president do what he wants, any time he wants, in military matters. Funny how that principle applied to Clinton then and not to Bush now.]

They also seem gungho in attacking North Korea now.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/837523/posts

Democrats: Bush Ignoring N. Korea Threat (remember this when Bush goes after N. Korea)
AP ^ | 2/6/03 | KEN GUGGENHEIM

Posted on 02/06/2003 5:47 PM EST by finnman69

By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Democrats said Thursday that President Bush (news - web sites), in a push for war against Iraq, is ignoring a potentially greater danger in North Korea (news - web sites)'s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

The White House, however, said it is has "robust plans for any contingencies" involving North Korea. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) repeated that the United States has no plans to attack North Korea, but that Bush "has retained all his options."

Concern about the nuclear program has grown after North Korea announced Wednesday it was putting the operation of its nuclear facilities on a "normal footing." That could mean it is about to produce nuclear weapons.

Bush administration officials have said North Korea's program does not constitute a crisis, and Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "I still feel it is possible to find a diplomatic solution."

Democrats, though, said Bush was not taking the threat seriously enough. In contrast with their praise of Powell's presentation Wednesday on Iraq to the United Nations (news - web sites), they pounced on what they saw as weakness and inconsistency in the administration's North Korea policy.

"Mr. President Bush, please, please, if you don't want to enunciate it, in your mind Mr. President, treat this as a crisis because it is, if not contained now," Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record) of Delaware, the top Democrat on the committee, said in the Senate.

Added Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota: "The president should stop downplaying this threat, start paying more attention to it and immediately engage the North Koreans in direct talks."

At the committee hearing, Sen. John Kerry (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., accused the administration of having a "fuzzy policy." Kerry, a declared presidential candidate, contended the administration had taken all options off the table, including the use of force and economic penalties.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., accused the administration of a policy of "designed neglect" toward North Korea and on other diplomatic fronts.

Powell said the administration, with its campaign against terrorism as well as stronger relations with Russia and China, had a foreign policy "geared to the problems we have in the 21st century."

Powell said in separate meetings Chinese and Russian foreign ministers in New York, he spent more time discussing North Korea than Iraq.

"We are deeply engaged in these issues. We are in touch with the North Koreans through a variety of channels," he said.

The two countries continue to exchange harsh words. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld called North Korea a "terrorist regime." North Korea warned that any U.S. attack on nuclear facilities would "spark off a total war."

Presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) expressed concern over that threat and said, "This kind of talk only hurts North Korea."

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said this week that the Pentagon (news - web sites) may bolster U.S. forces in the Pacific in case North Korea tries to take advantage of Bush's focus on Iraq.

The administration has few promising policy options in North Korea.

North Korea has one of the world's largest armies and is believed to have one or two nuclear bombs. The United States has been reluctant to start direct talks with North Korea, saying it does not want to submit to blackmail.

Powell said Bush wants to help North Koreans, "who are starving, who are in economic distress, but we have to find a way to do it that does not suggest to the North Koreans that we are doing it because they have this tool, this weapon, that they use nuclearization of the (Korean) Peninsula as a way to get us to do it because we are threatened by them."

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