General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: There is some serious cowardice going on here about John Kerry's seat. [View all]frazzled
(18,402 posts)Senator John Kerry, October 9, 2002:
"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security."
Kerry, Senate floor speech, October, 2002:
"When I vote to give the president of the US the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein, it is because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a threat, and a grave threat."
Kerry, speech at Georgetown University, January 2003:
"Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator; leading an oppressive regime he presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation. So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real."
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/wmdquotes.asp
Kerry, Speech to Council on Foreign Relations in response to Bush announcing we were going to war, March 18, 2003 (day before bombing was to begin):
"Regardless of the Administration's mishandling of so much of this situation, no President can defer the national security decisions of this country to the United Nations or any other multilateral institution or individual country.
Even having botched the diplomacy, it is the duty of any President, in the final analysis, to defend this nation and dispel the security threats - threats both immediate and longer term - against it."
Saddam Hussein has brought military action upon himself by refusing for twelve years to comply with the mandates of the United Nations. The brave and capable men and women of our armed forces and those who are with us will quickly , I know, remove him once and for all as a threat to his neighbors, to the world, and to his own people, and I support their doing so."
http://www.cfr.org/world/senator-john-kerrys-statement-response-presidents-speech-nation/p5722