But you voted in October 2002 to give Bush the authority to use force in Iraq. Was that vote a mistake?
No. My vote was the right vote. If I had been president, I would have wanted that authority to leverage the behavior that we needed. But I would have used it so differently than the way George Bush did.
Would there have been a war in Iraq if you had been president?
I can't tell you that. If Saddam Hussein hadn't disarmed and all the world had decided that he was not living up to the standards, who knows? You can't answer that hypothetical. But I can tell you this. I would never have rushed the process in a way that undoes the meaning of going to war "as a last resort."
And that's what you thought you were authorizing -- war as a last resort?
Absolutely. You know, we got a set of promises: We're going to build an international coalition, we're going to exhaust the remedies of the U.N., respect that process and go to war as a last resort. Well, we didn't.
And not only [did we] not go to war as a last resort, they didn't even make the plans for winning the peace. They disregarded them. They disregarded [U.S. Army General Eric] Shinseki's advice, disregarded Colin Powell's advice, disregarded the State Department's plan. The arrogance of this administration has cost Americans billions of dollars and too many lives.
The argument that the administration disregarded and disrespected the military seems to resonate strongly with the people who come to see you.
Well, the truth is the truth. The truth has a force of its own. I'm just going out there and telling the truth.
Anyway hope you are having a nice memorial day, and you can look forward to a new look on Monday.
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