On Tuesday, Fox News obtained a draft of a memo by Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In the draft, Democrats propose strategically timing a congressional probe into pre-war intelligence on Iraq that would hurt President Bush’s campaign for re-election. The memo says that “the best time would probably be next year,” closer to the 2004 election.
Democrats in the Senate defended the draft, asserting that people have a right to know “why we sent our sons and daughters into the war.” They also complained that the draft was not meant for distribution.
There is a double standard. The Democrats have no problem exposing the faulty information used by the Bush administration to justify going to war in Iraq. But they don’t want people to know that they are using that issue, as well as the power of the Senate to launch investigations, merely to attack Bush’s re-election efforts.
It is typical for politicians to launch key attacks on opponents based on a timing strategy in their campaign. However, it is unacceptable and unethical to use a senatorial probe as the guise of their attacks.
If an investigation needs to be launched, they should launch it as soon as possible so that people can know the truth about prewar intelligence instead of planning it to manipulate the reaction of the voters. Their goal should be to determine the basis of a war that has led to the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition troops.
Democrats also said the memo expressed their concerns that the White House has not expediently responded to requests for executive documents. But presidential administrations are known for their reluctance to hand over documents to Congress.
As Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, pointed out, the White House wants to make sure it is not setting a precedent regarding the type of documents it is required to submit to the Senate. It reflects a traditional concern with minute details of the separation of powers between government branches.
The Democrats held a hypocritical stance both before and after the initial stages of the war.
In October 2002, Democratic senators helped to pass a resolution authorizing Bush to attack Iraq if Saddam Hussein did not comply with U.N. resolutions requiring him to surrender weapons of mass destruction. The terms of the resolution were broad, giving Bush leeway to determine his course of action against Iraq.
Most Democrats favored the resolution, showing their support of Bush during a time when his popularity was soaring. According to CNN, even then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said they all needed “to speak with one voice at this critical moment.”
Daschle has a bad habit of inconsistency in his stance on important issues. He is currently one of the president’s major critics regarding the war in Iraq.
Democrats are distancing themselves from their pre-war enthusiasm now that the excitement is over. They can oppose Bush in such measures more openly now that his popularity has waned.
The Democrats are right about one thing. There should be an investigation into the intelligence on which the invasion of Iraq was based. It should be determined whether administration officials intentionally presented misleading information in order to further their cause.
We already know that faulty information was used in Bush’s State of the Union Address. Perhaps he was unaware that the suggestion that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa was not verifiable. Regardless, CIA Director Geroge Tenet took responsiblity for the bad intelligence. It has since been proven false.
It’s disappointing that Bush has not taken responsibility for asserting the claim as fact in his address to the nation. If Democrats are sincerely concerned about these blatant misrepresentations of the truth, they need to deal with it now rather than putting it off any longer.
Katherine Story is a junior history and Spanish major. She can be reached at [email protected].