[Marxism] LA Times editorial confronts Kerry and Edwards

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(As I understand it, the LA Times has hired Michael Kinsley, late of 
Salon and the New Republic, to be its editorial page director. If he had 
anything to do with the piece below, he seems to have put this dubious 
past behind him.)

LA Times, July 13, 2004

EDITORIAL
Kerry-Edwards Stonewall

If not murder, John F. Kerry and John Edwards have accused President 
Bush of something close to criminally negligent homicide in Iraq. "They 
were wrong and soldiers died because they were wrong," Kerry said of the 
Bush administration over the weekend.

This is strong language, but not unjustified. Last week's Senate 
Intelligence Committee report adds to the pile of studies and reportage 
that has undermined the key reasons Bush gave for going to war: Saddam 
Hussein's imperial designs, links between Iraq and Al Qaeda, weapons of 
mass destruction and so on.

The trouble is, both Sens. Kerry and Edwards voted yes on the resolution 
authorizing the war in Iraq. And now they refuse to say whether they 
would have supported the resolution if they had known what they know 
today. Both say they can't be bothered with "hypothetical questions."

But whether it is a hypothetical question depends on how you phrase it. 
Do they regret these votes? Were their votes a mistake? These are not 
hypothetical questions. And they are questions the Democratic candidates 
for president and vice president cannot duck if they wish to attack Bush 
on Iraq in such morally charged language.

After all, the issue raised by the Senate Intelligence Committee report 
is not whether the Bush administration bungled the prosecution of the 
war, or whether there should have been greater international 
cooperation, or whether the challenges of occupying and rebuilding the 
country were grossly underestimated. When Kerry says "they were wrong," 
he is referring to the administration's basic case for going to war. 
Kerry supported that decision. So did Edwards. Were they wrong? If they 
won't answer that question, they have no moral standing to criticize Bush.

Reluctance to answer the question is understandable. If they say they 
stand by their pro-war votes, this makes nonsense of their criticisms of 
Bush. If they say they were misled or duped by the administration, they 
look dopey and weak. Many of their Democratic Senate colleagues were 
skeptical of the administration's evidence even at the time. If Kerry 
and Edwards tell the probable truth — that they were deeply dubious 
about the war but afraid to vote no in the post-9/11 atmosphere and be 
tarred as lily-livered liberals — they would win raves from editorial 
writers for their frankness and courage. And they could stop dreaming of 
oval offices.

Kerry and Edwards are in a bind. But it is a bind of their own making. 
The great pity will be if this bind leads the Democratic candidates to 
back off from their harsh, and largely justified, criticism of Bush. The 
Democrats could lose a valuable issue, and possibly even the election, 
because the Democratic candidates were too clever for their own good.

In the past, Kerry has dodged the question of his pro-war vote by saying 
that he intended to give Bush negotiating leverage and to encourage 
multilateral action, not to endorse a unilateral American invasion of 
Iraq. Unfortunately, what he may have intended is not what he voted for. 
Furthermore, a vote in favor of the war resolution was unavoidably a 
statement that the various complaints against Hussein did justify going 
to war against him, if all else failed, whatever caveats and escape 
hatches were in any individual senator's head.

Kerry and Edwards would like to fudge the issue by conflating it with 
questions about how the war was prosecuted. Or they say that what 
matters is where we go from here. It is true that "what now?" is the 
important policy question. But that doesn't make it the only question. 
How we got here affects how we get out. And even if it had no practical 
relevance to our future Iraq policy, hearing how Kerry and Edwards 
explain their votes to authorize a war they now regard as disastrous 
would be helpful in assessing their character and judgment.

Their continued refusal to explain would be even more helpful, 
unfortunately.


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