No decision is more grave for a legislature than the decision to go to war. Many lawmakers have made a mistake. Many have tried to explain their mistaken votes for war. Joe Biden is extraordinary because he’s trying to pretend his vote for war was not a vote for war.
He claimed he would have opposed the war had he known it was going to lead to war. Instead, Biden says he was voting for more inspections of Saddam Hussein’s weapons facilities.
Biden is arguing that he didn’t vote to go to war, but that he voted for further weapons inspections in Iraq. But that’s not true.
The resolution Biden voted for was literally titled, “To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq.” Nobody thought the United States Armed Forces were going to be doing weapons inspections “against Iraq.”
This isn’t a new line from Democrats. Since 2004, when Democrats nominated the architect of the Iraq War, John Kerry, Democrats who supported the Iraq War have been trying to claim that they supported something other than U.S. war with Iraq. But voting to authorize the president to attack Iraq is voting for war.
The claim the vote wasn’t authorizing war is particularly weak coming from a guy who was clearly and consistently in favor of “taking Saddam down.”
Joe Biden supported the U.S. war against Iraq. It was a grave decision. It was a grave mistake. And he’s not man enough to own up to it.
