One paragraph in this quote from the previous post is very troublesome (source: MSNBC): In October of 2002, the U.S. Congress passed this resolution which explicitly authorized the use of U.S. Armed forced in Iraq. The resolution passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 296-133 and the U.S. Senate with a 77-23 margin. Nearly a year later, several prominent (Democratic) Representatives and Senators have come out and declared that they did not really vote for a resolution to use force. Wesley Clark has also declared that he would have voted for this resolution but only as leverage to help achieve a U.N.-based solution.

This whole "Resolution as Leverage" idea is intellectually dishonest. When the vote was taken in 2002, it was politically expedient to vote in favor of the resolution. Now that the Presidential campaign is in full swing, these candidates are trying to appeal to their base constituency by stating that they only voted for it as diplomatic leverage but has no intention to go to war. It is an untenable position to declare support for the resolution and in the same breath condemn the war.

Here is a portion of the text they overwhelmingly approved:

There is no ambiguity in this language. The President was fully authorized to use force in Iraq by the Congress if diplomatic means failed. Was there ever any doubt that diplomatic means would fail miserably? There were numerous U.N. Resolutions against Iraq since the first gulf war and each one produced zero progress in dealing with the beligerance of Saddam Hussein and the oppression of the Iraqi people. Diplomacy was and always would be ineffective against Saddam because no one was willing to enforce it prior to March, 2003.

In order for "Resolution as Leverage" to work, there must be true resolve behind the resolution. There also must be a track record of action when the "lever" does not accomplish its desired result. U.S. foreign policy under the Clinton Administration was heavy on talk and light on action. Talk is acceptable when the objectives are being achieved but when talks break down and no action follows, the "lever" becomes flaccid and powerless. Nothing illustrates this better then the words of Uday Hussein a few days into Gulf War II: