Les Jones

Middle East > Does Anyone Remember the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998?

VariFrank

The single dumbest statement I have ever heard in regards to the "war in Iraq" was made to me today, and here it is:

“The Bush administration has destabilized the middle east and stopped the "peace process"...”.

He goes on to explain the absurdity of that statement, and it's worth a read all by itself. Along the way he mentions something I had forgotten about: the Iraq Liberation Act. Here's the relevant part of the act (.pdf link):

It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.

SEC. 6. WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL FOR IRAQ.

Consistent with section 301 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993 (Public Law 102-138), House Concurrent Resolution 137, 105th Congress (approved by the House of Representatives on November 13, 1997), and Senate Concurrent Resolution 78, 105th Congress (approved by the Senate on March 13, 1998), the Congress urges the President to call upon the United Nations to establish an international criminal tribunal for the purpose of indicting, prosecuting, and imprisoning Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials who are responsible for crimes against humanity, genocide, and other criminal violations of international law.

SEC. 7. ASSISTANCE FOR IRAQ UPON REPLACEMENT OF SADDAM HUSSEIN REGIME.

It is the sense of the Congress that once the Saddam Hussein regime is removed from power in Iraq, the United States should support Iraq's transition to democracy by providing immediate and substantial humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, by providing democracy transition assistance to Iraqi parties and movements with democratic goals, and by convening Iraq's foreign creditors to develop a multilateral response to Iraq's foreign debt incurred by Saddam Hussein's regime.

You know who voted for the Iraq Liberation Act? John Kerry. You know who else voted for it? Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi. You know who else voted for it? Every Democrat and Republican in the Senate. Bill Clinton signed it into law October 31, 1998.

Granted, the act spelling out ways the U.S. could encourage Hussein's violent overthrow by Iraqis with U.S. military advisement, but didn't authorize the involvement of U.S forces, though it didn't rule that out, either.

SEC. 8. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.

Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize or otherwise speak to the use of United States Armed Forces (except as provided in section 4(a)(2)) in carrying out this Act.

The war may have been Bush's, but the law stating that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the establishment of democracy in Iraq was U.S. policy was in fact a rare example of bi-partisan agreement. Don't let anyone tell you that what's happened in the last four years was part of some wild neo-con plot. Bush just put his predecessor's policies and intent into action.