TBV Feature: Democratic timidity on the Iraq War

The current (Winter 2005) issue of Middle East Policy has an interview with former Senator Gary Hart, conducted in October 2005 by Gareth Porter. The five months since may make some of his comments a bit dated. But not most of them.

This section on the leading Democrats and the Iraq War is still pretty relevant:

[M]ost of the so-called leaders, those most prominent in the party, particularly in foreign affairs and prospective candidates for president, signed on to the war almost to a person. Exception has to be made, obviously, for people like Ted Kennedy and Robert C. Byrd and Russ Feinglold and others. I think my recollection is that the Democratic Caucus [in the Senate] divided pretty much down the middle, almost 20-20, 22-22, on the war resolution. Almost all of the more visible Democrats voted for the war.

I would suppose the explanations run from the crass to the noble ...

Somewhere in that range are the various explanations of Senators Clinton, Bayh, Biden, Kerry and others. They each have to speak for themselves. I think more important is now, three years later, when all of the rationale for the war has been totally disproved, why no one of that group has stepped forward to say, "The president misled me and misled the country, and I want to now state that it is not in America's interest for us to be enmeshed in an insurgency in the Middle East, and I now intend to do all I can to get American military forces out of there." That's what has not happened, and I cannot give you a reason.

It's also a mystery to me why none of them have made an issue out of the fact that Bush violated the war resolution for which they voted. The Democrats have to get out of this defensiveness and "triangulation" on military issues. And it's hard to imagine a better time than now to do so.

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