Bill Clinton Opposed Iraq From The "Beginning"?

Huh?

"Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning," said Clinton, "I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers."

Clinton has long been critical of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and called it a "big mistake" as far back as November of 2005.

But like his wife, the former president supported giving President Bush the authority needed to go to war.

"I supported the President when he asked the Congress for authority to stand up against weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," said Clinton in 2003 while delivering commencement remarks at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss.

Mr. President -- your wife is going to be in Iowa tomorrow. She is supposed to talk about health care. You don't want to step on her message by claiming that you opposed the Iraq War from the beginning! We're in the era of instantaneous fact checks... within 10 minutes of your comments, they're everywhere, and if you want to walk them back, it's not like calling Ron Fournier to walk back an AP story!

Remember: The last two times Mr. Clinton campaigned for his wife, well, there were messaging issues. He used the word "Swift Boat" in conjunction with opponents' attacks and then, in South Carolina, fueled a few days worth of coverage by noting how those boys were getting tough on her.

Comments

"You don't want to step on her message by claiming that you opposed the Iraq War from the beginning! We're in the era of instantaneous fact checks... within 10 minutes of your comments, they're everywhere, and if you want to walk them back, it's not like calling Ron Fournier to walk back an AP story!"

Marc, you assume that Bill Clinton's agenda is more concerned with electing his wife President than with vindicating himself.

You're wrong in that assumption.

Posted by Petey | November 28, 2007 7:10 AM

Stay on this, Marc, because it's even worse than you may think. Hillary Clinton spokesperson Phil Singer is saying that BOTH Clintons opposed the war and urged more time for weapons inspectors to finish the job. The real issue is Hillary, and since this issue was important to me, I Googled and Nexised Hillary's comments in the two months preceding the March 2003 invasion, and she did not in any way call for Bush to apply the brakes. To the contrary, here's the transcript of a Feb 9 2003 CNN piece by Woodruff, who interviewed HIllary about the impending war:

I [Judy Woodruff] started by asking Senator Clinton if she agrees with President Bush that Iraq has been given every chance to disarm, and that we're just weeks away from war. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CLINTON: Well, I think that's the unfortunate conclusion that one has to draw from any objective reading of the evidence, not just in the last months, but going back more than a dozen years now. So I think that the president's made the right decision to go back to the United Nations. I always believe if you can have a larger group of people behind you, not only for the military action, where we don't really need their help, but for what comes after, that's preferable. But I also believe that at some point, this has been in Saddam Hussein's hands from the very beginning. He signed agreements that he has failed to keep, and even now has refused to cooperate with the inspectors.

Not only that, on the very day Bush issued his famous ultimatum to Saddam "Flee the country with your sons within 48 hours or an invasion will start at a time of our choosing," Hillary issued a statement of complete support. She did not even include the usual Clintonian wiggle words, such as "While I would prefer continuing inspections and further diplomacy [etc.]"

Posted by RaymondA | November 28, 2007 8:22 AM

Two things about my previous post. The Hillary Clinton/Judy Woodruff interview was on February 27, 2003, not February 9. So it was about three weeks before the invasion. And do Hillary's remarks sound like those of someone calling for Bush to give inspections more of a chance? Nope.

Second, here is the link: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0302/27/ip.00.html

Posted by RaymondA | November 28, 2007 8:46 AM

As you stated, I think he is not used to operating a campaign in the internet age.

Posted by heather | November 28, 2007 8:58 AM

The Clintons do not seem to understand that we can google the remarks they make and compare them.
they are still back in 1992. They think in terms of pre internet.
it is an age where politicians like the clintons can no longer twist facts, rewrite history, parse and dodge and make things up.
it is not just the Macaca moments that they need to watch out for. it is googling as well.
i do think both clintons are just that much out of touch.

Posted by vwcat | November 28, 2007 9:54 AM

It's too bad that AlGore invented the internet. Now we can quickly check claims by the Clintons. This claim shows it's the same old parsing and spliting of hairs. Nothing changes concerning the Clintons.

Posted by parcing | November 28, 2007 9:58 AM

As someone who made the mistake of supporting the Iraq war, these comments REALLY get me riled.

One of the reasons why I supported the war was because people like Bill and Hillary Clinton (serious, experienced, "wise" DemocratS) made it completely clear that they supported the war unconditionally.

Their attempt to claim that they never supported the war is beyond dishonest. It's approaching villainy...

Posted by Democrats Against Hillary | November 28, 2007 10:11 AM

I think you guys are misunderstanding Bill.

"Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning...."

I think he means he opposed Iraq from the beginning of Hillary's run for the White House. And of course, it all depends on what your definition of "is" is.

But hey, Hillary has experience! That's all we need!

Posted by Jayhawk Max | November 28, 2007 11:11 AM

Marc, I'm glad you've posted this. I've been outraged since reading this on the Huffington Post last night and sent the full NYT article to my friends.

Here's whats wrong with Bill Clinton's statement: Hillary is claiming foreign policy experience, far more than Obama. So, if the man she lives with was "against the Iraq war from the start", why didn't she take advantage of her unique access to a former president's advice and vote against the largest foreign policy mistake since Vietnam? 22 senators voted against it and Obama rallied with antiwar advocates in 2002. Her judgement is damaged by Bill Clinton's statement.

Hillary Clinton has two problems with this.

A) she didn't listen to advice of more experienced foreign policy experts and voted for the war anyway. (This reminds me of her failure to read the intelligence report) Doesn't this woman listen to ANYBODY? If so, she is so like George Bush it makes me want to barf. GWB probably didn't listed to his father either.

or

B) Bill Clinton is lying about this. Since Obama announced his candidacy, BClinton has been on the attack, trying to blur the differences between them. Earlier in the spring, in a phone call with donors, Bill Clinton, ranted about the press giving Obama a pass.

No matter how the Clintons get themselves out of this BS, Hillary has to be in a no-win situation and if her opponents let them get away with this, they don't deserve my vote.

This is disgraceful.

Posted by Ellen Hamm | November 28, 2007 12:18 PM

As to anybody who wants to try to halfway defend Big Bill, don't forget he had Iraq invasion plans drafted way back in 1998. His being before the war before he was against it is of no surprise to me.

Posted by SocraticGadfly | November 28, 2007 3:27 PM

"I did not have support for that war."

Hopefully no one in the administration was wearing a blue dress at the time.

Coincidentally, I just saw Hillary on tape (Hardball) saying in 2002 she could support the president and support using force against Saddam Hussein. I guess like Bill, she was for it... before she was against it... before she was for it... before she was against it...

Posted by Paul | November 28, 2007 5:09 PM

bill clinton still lives in the '90s when there was little accountable on the campaign trail.

in the internet age, honesty is the best policy.

Posted by pk | November 28, 2007 5:23 PM

The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 was approved on October 16, 2002. No one in Congress, including Senator Hillary Clinton, and no keen outside observer, including Bill Clinton, thought it unlikely that President George W. Bush would order an invasion of Iraq within months. “Preparing the environment” for the invasion conspicuously began well before the invasion was announced. The staging of materiel and armaments and the deployment of military personnel to the region were conspicuous for months before the invasion. There was ample time to speak up in no uncertain terms about what was clearly imminent. A relative few earnest souls got fooled, but neither Hillary Clinton nor Bill Clinton was among them.

Posted by Teaeopy | November 28, 2007 9:43 PM

Thank you Bill Clinton. .no matter how hard Obama has pounded the table about Hillary's poor judgement in voting for this war, he couldn't get enough Democrats on his side..but in the flash of a coupla narcissistic minutes, you cleaned up..

I reject 90s redux

Posted by Elisabeth | November 29, 2007 11:47 AM

Do we have any lawyers here who can tell us how he can parse what he said with legalisms.

Posted by davod | November 29, 2007 3:02 PM