JawsBlog

Why is it so incredibly difficult for politicians to answer simple questions with simple answers?

Today’s example:

Bush put Sen. Kerry on the spot by asking rather bluntly if knowing what we know now, would Kerry still have voted authorizing the President to use force in Iraq?

To quote the President exactly:

Bush said, “My opponent hasn’t answered the question of whether, knowing what we know now, he would have supported going into Iraq. That’s an important question and the American people deserve a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.” [emphasis added] “Now, there are some questions that a commander-in-chief needs to answer with a clear yes or no,” Bush said. “My opponent hasn’t answered the question of whether knowing what we know now, he would have supported going into Iraq.”

It’s a simple “Yes” -or- “No” question, or at least one would assume so, right? Well let’s see what Sen. Kerry had to say:

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.”–AP

Just like Matt Margolis did, at first I thought–hey –Kerry answered the question! But then as I continued reading the article, I realized–hey–he didn’t answer the answer the basic question–he’s trying to dance around it!

Rather than stopping at “yes”; Kerry apparently attempts to introduce some “nuance” to his response saying:

“I believe it is the right authority for a president to have but I would have used that authority effectively.”

So Senator, should you have had the authority as CINC, would YOU have gone to war against Saddam with the info/intel President Bush had? That’s what the main question is.

But Kerry then tries to go back on the offensive with some questions of his own for the President:

1. “Why did we rush to war without a plan to win the peace?
2. Why did you rush to war on faulty intelligence and not do the hard work necessary to give America the truth?
3. Why did he mislead America about how he would go to war
.
4. Why has he not brought other countries to the table in order to support American troops in the way they deserve it and relieve the pressure on the American people?
“

Kerry faulted Bush for the use he made of the authority he had to wage war. “American presidents should not send American forces into war without a plan to win the peace. This president did not have a plan to win the peace and the evidence is still that they are scrambling and struggling to try to find a way to do it,” the Democrat said.–AP

Looking at Kerry’s first two questions for the President, one can’t help but wonder:

1) Regarding the “Rush to war” canard–that’s a bunch of bs that’s been debunked who knows how many times by now?
2) Apparently Kerry didn’t read the Senate Intel Cmt’e report or the Hutton Report (UK) which absolved the President and PM Blair of the charges of “misleading” people and pressuring intel. agencies to produce a certain result. Rather in retrospect we have been told that the alphabet soup of intel agencies are at fault. And if Kerry had bothered to actually read Bob Woodward’s book “Plan of Attack” he would see that Bush not only did the hard worl, but he also agonized for quite some time over this decision.

3) The President did assemble a coalition of the willing which had, I think at its peak 53 countries–and since Saddam’s fall, the arab nations have finally begun stepping up to the plate to help out (which they could not publicaly do pre-war b/c of domestic concerns).

4) Finally, this whole thing about a “plan to win the peace”–seems like a misnomer. Don’t you have to win the war in order to have peace? And if we’re going to ask about plans to “win the peace”–I’d direct questions to Gen (ret.) Tommy Franks who was the man behind the masterful plans which led us to such a swift victory in Iraq. He’d know more about post-war plans than most of us.

So Senator Kerry–the question still remains-is your answer “Yes” or “no”?