RNC Distorts Dean’s Pre-War Comments

In follow-up to my recent post on Howard Dean’s call to release the documents on the mobile labs and WMD, the RNC has issued a response.

The RNC took several of Dean’s pre-war statements to claim hypocrisy, showing Dean believed there was WND prior to the war. Note that they do the same to Dean that they did to Kerry during the 2004 election–twisting statements to claim Dean supported going to war.

There is some justice here considering how Dean also did this to Kerry during the primaries. Such things during the primaries are to be expected, but far too many Dean supporters continue to falsely claim Kerry supported the war. Perhaps this will teach them that it only helps Republicans when such tactics are used.

In response to the RNC’s claims, the fact that Dean and Kerry were concerned about the presence of WMD prior to the war does not justify Bush’s actions. First of all, the belief that WMD was present was based upon intelligence reports which have been shown to have been distorted by the Bush administration. Dean’s call of the release of these papers is an effort to prove yet another case of Bush being dishonest in his report of the evidence.

Secondly. the belief that there was WMD did not justify going to war. War would have only been justified if there was evidence we were actually threatened by WMD. There was no need to go to war once the inspectors were allowed back into Iraq.

The fact that both Howard Dean and John Kerry were concerned about the threat of WMD disputes the common GOP claim that they would have been weak on defense. The Republicans can’t have it both ways–claiming that they are weak on defense and also supported going to war. Dean and Kerry would have responded to any proven threat of WMD, but not by going to war unnecessarily.