Pejmanesque

HE CAN'T CLAIM TO HAVE BEEN DECEIVED ANYMORE

A staple of the Democratic talking points regarding Iraq is that the Democrats and the American people were deceived into supporting the war. But John Kerry has undercut that claim:

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said on Monday he would have voted for the congressional resolution authorizing force against Iraq even if he had known then no weapons of mass destruction would be found.

Taking up a challenge from President Bush, whom he will face in the Nov. 2 election, the Massachusetts senator said: "I'll answer it directly. Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it is the right authority for a president to have but I would have used that authority effectively."

Speaking to reporters from the Powell's Landing on the rim of the Grand Canyon above a mile-deep drop, Kerry also said reducing U.S. troops in Iraq significantly by next August was "an appropriate goal."

"My goal, my diplomacy, my statesmanship is to get our troops reduced in number and I believe if you do the statesmanship properly, I believe if you do the kind of alliance building that is available to us, that it's appropriate to have a goal of reducing the troops over that period of time," he said.

Of course, Kerry's claims about diplomacy are meaningless--especially as he has not even given specifics on his plan to remove troops from Iraq. What matters is that Kerry is saying that even if he knew in October, 2002 what he knows now, he would have voted to authorize the use of force. That claim is entirely inconsistent with the claim that one has been misled. That point deserves to be reiterated over and over again--all the way up until November.

UPDATE: More on Kerry and his Iraq policy can be found here.