Prophecies from the Past

In 1998 President Clinton said: “If Saddam defies the world and we fail to respond, we will face a far greater threat in the future. . . . And mark my words, he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them.”

In 2002 Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke about the weapons of mass destruction issue: “If left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons.”

Sen. Clinton voted to authorize the war and voted to prevent the requirement that President Bush request another congressional vote before invading Iraq.  Bush’s war?  Come now.

President Obama’s opposition came without the knowledge, correct or incorrect, available to Presidents Clinton and Bush, and to Sens. Clinton, Edwards, Kerry, Biden and McCain, all of whom voted to authorize the Iraq invasion.

We knew that Hussein had killed thousands of his Kurdish citizens with poison gas in 1988, and we found hundreds of mustard gas shells and bombs and a sarin nerve-gas shell when we invaded Iraq.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”