Posted on 10/10/2004 12:17:57 PM PDT by wagglebee
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards on Sunday disputed a White House assertion that it was right to topple Saddam Hussein even if he had no illegal weapons because he posed a future threat.
The North Carolina senator, appearing on several television news programs, said Saddam's intention to eventually gather weapons of mass destruction was one of dozens of such threats.
"There are lots of threats waiting to happen all over the world," Edwards said. "That doesn't mean that that justifies invading a country."
Edwards was responding to U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who told "Fox News Sunday" that President Bush was "absolutely" correct to have launched the invasion of Iraq even if they had known, as they do now, that the former Iraqi president had no stockpiles of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
Saddam was "a major and growing threat to the international community" with "an insatiable appetite for weapons of mass destruction," Rice said.
"It was time to take care of him. And this president, post-September 11th, was not going to let threats continue to gather," she added. "It was only a matter of time."
The two continued a debate that has dominated the U.S. presidential campaign in recent weeks and intensified with the final report of chief U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, who concluded Iraq had no unconventional weapons -- a main rationale for going to war.
"You know, the Bush administration's explanation is: 'We invaded a country because at some point in the future they might get weapons of mass destruction?' ... I mean, the bottom line is, this is a convoluted logic to try to justify in hindsight what we now know wasn't true," Edwards said on CNN's "Late Edition."
Bush says his Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, agreed in the spring of 2003 it was the right decision to invade Iraq but now says it was the wrong war. Kerry has said repeatedly that Bush rushed to war without a strong coalition or a plan to win the peace.
"We did not authorize this president to make the mess that he has now made in Iraq," Edwards said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
The first-term senator also noted that of the three countries singled out by Bush as part of an "axis of evil" -- Iraq, North Korea and Iran -- "you know, we invaded the one of those three that doesn't have nuclear weapons."
Edwards predicted the situation in Iraq, where a violent insurgency has raged for more than a year after Saddam was ousted, "and whether the president's going to level with people about that ... will drive the decision on November 2nd."
Condi has been doing this foreign policy stuff like ever since she was an undergraduate. Edwards only forign policy experience is to miss some intelligence committee hearings.
"You know, the Bush administration's explanation is: 'We invaded a country because at some point in the future they might get weapons of mass destruction?' ... I mean, the bottom line is, this is a convoluted logic to try to justify in hindsight what we now know wasn't true," Edwards said on CNN's "Late Edition."
Oh calm down now Silky and go out and get yourself a manicure.
That was then.
Now is now.
Thus, in a Democrat's world, is yesterday's lie trumped by today's untruth.
It's hard to keep up, isn't it?
But the Breck boy also called for the US giving Iran nuclear fuel so we could 'monitor' them. I mean, doesn't this guy read the news?? Iran immediately shot down this idea when Kerry brought it up in the first debate. Iran said 'no way in hell.' And bilateral negotiations have been universally rejected by the Iranians considering that we are Satan. This is the most half-*ss plan for protecting the country we have heard since Dukakis.
bump
Then why did you vote for it? Were you just not paying attention, that day? Or have you changed your mind?
In a May 2003 interview on MSNBC’s “Hardball” with Chris Matthews, Senator Kerry defended his vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq thus: “We were presented an enormous amount of evidence by the CIA, the intelligence community, and we voted accordingly and, I think, appropriately.”
Since Edwards is an attorney we should couch the arguement in terms he can understand. If Saddam were a criminal who was suspected of possessing a weapon, who had used weapons againset family and neighbors in the past and who was refusing commands from the police to "come out with his hands up" the police would have been justified in using deadly force.
"Edwards only forign policy experience is to miss some intelligence committee hearings."
Yeah, but he's very smart. A "quick study." The ladies say pretty cute, too.
He'll get up to speed in time by Jan. 20. Be calm.
The Breck Girl knows his career in politics will end on Nov. 3rd, so making increasingly dumb, stupid statements is not a risk.
He knows he is going to go back to the courtroom to channel unborn babies and screw doctors, so he needs the practice making outrageous statements.
Rice has bigger gonads than Edwards. Brains too.
If I can recall correctly, it was the Clinton administration that voted for regime change? What other way was there to get rid of Saddam, stand there and call him dirty names? Bush gave Saddam and his sons 48 hours to get out of the country a couple days before we struck. Saddam thought he would take us for fools one more time but he joked to the wrong Cowboy.
No other threats in the world like like Iraq that have the distinction of having invaded Saudia Arabia and Kuwait, ignored dozens of sanctions over a dozen years, developed and used WMDs, helped train Muhammed Atta and other terrorists and tried to assasinate a President. Finding the stockpiles is not needed to justify the invasion.
They're so much smarter than us "regular folks", aren't they?
AAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!
As a LAWYER, Silky Pony, WHICH of those three did we have LEGAL authority (by UN Security Council resolution, Congressional authorization and violated ceasefire agreement) to invade? HMMM? Here's a hint: It wasn't Iran or North Korea!
THE. MSM. PISS. ME. OFF.
Where is the JOURNALISM going on here??
Of course! No one remembers this. Except you. And me. And the Pajamahadine collective.
How many times has Edwards/Kerry visited the middle east since Sept. 11 ? I'm curious how they know so much more than Allawi and Rice....
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