Well, GOP.com has a new video showing numerous video clips of Democrats in the past proclaiming what the President from 2002 onward leading up to the war. This line that Saddam Hussein had acquired Weapons of Mass Destruction. And so, now the GOP, on the defensive, is trying to come back on the offensive against the democrats, and call them liars.
Let’s get one thing straight. To date, no weapons of mass destruction have been found. We know that at some point in the past the Iraqi government did indeed have access to horrible weapons. We sold them to Iraq. That goes for the deadly VX nerve gas that Saddam will stand trial for using on civilians during the conflict between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s. It goes for the scuds and other weapons that our own troops faced in the first war.
Is it irresponsible for the democrats to turn around and say they never believed Saddam had such weapons? Yes. Does that clear the horrible record of the republicans? Not on your life.
Let’s face the facts. The democrats have not been saints, or served our interests. The republicans have done worse, but that does not excuse incompetance of democrats. Still, the democrats have every right to turn around and admit their mistakes, their grievous errors, and still hold strong against the republicans. The republicans also have the right to turn around, face down their own mistakes, and change. No points for admitting your wrongs and continuing them. No victory for merely pummelling your political opponents.
You can claim that the intelligence, unpressured, was just wrong. It does not paint you in a better light to say, “we funded these efforts to gather intelligence that failed,” unless you yourself are welling to admit failure. That’s something that the republicans haven’t done. They are trying now to scapegoat the democrats for the same thing.
It doesn’t fly.