Students who were away from the news and television last week likely missed the sad and despicable behavior of two U.S. senators.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) and senator and presidential candidate hopeful John Kerry (D-MA) have decided to politicize this war rather than taking a respectable position.

It was learned Monday, March 17, that President Bush was going to address the American people that evening to tell us the time for waiting for Saddam Hussein to be truthful and to fully disarm was over.

With this in mind and American troops poised to fight, Daschle said, “I’m saddened, saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we’re now forced to war. Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn’t create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country.”

This is the same Sen. Daschle who voted yes Oct. 11, 2002 — right before the midterm elections — supporting the use of force in Iraq and who, in 1998, supported former President Clinton’s attacks on Baghdad, conducted without authorization from the United Nations Security Council.

In 1998, Daschle said Hussein’s regime was “leaving us little choice” and ‘the use of force at some point would be inevitable.” Daschle, even in 1998, said that, absent compliance, the security threat Iraq poses only worsens.

In fact, not one Democrat in the U.S. Senate uttered a single word questioning President Clinton?s decision to bomb Iraq. Not Daschle, not Kennedy, not Kerry.

Presidential-hopeful Kerry also did his best to politicize the war on that same Monday. He said the president had “botched the diplomacy” and “clumsily and arrogantly” alienated potential allies. Yet, three days later, both Sen. Daschle and Sen. Kerry voted in favor of a resolution “Commending the president and the Armed Forces of the United States of America.”

Both Daschle and Kerry were doing their best to cover themselves and their party, regardless of the outcome of this war.

Kerry knows he has little chance of defeating President Bush in an election if he is against the war and the war goes well. He also believes that if he makes comments against the war, and God forbid it does go poorly, that may be enough for him to win the Democratic nomination and defeat President Bush.

Daschle needs to figure out whom he is representing himself. He certainly is not representing South Dakotans; they are staunchly in support of President Bush and his decision to go to war. He isn’t representing the American people; 64 percent of those asked in a poll released this Monday disagree with Daschle?s comments. Perhaps this is why he now sports the title “minority leader” — because only a minority of South Dakotans and Americans agree with his positions.

President Bush and congressional Republicans support this war because of the threat Saddam Hussein poses to the United States and the world. Congressional Republicans have not wavered on the need to protect the United States from this threat. In 1998, congressional Republicans supported President Clinton because Saddam Hussein was a threat. This threat has not lessened, nor has the position of Republicans in office on disarming Saddam.

To those Democrats attempting to use this war for political gain, House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX) responded best, “Fermez la bouche.” French for “Shut your mouth.”

 

Matt Modell ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism and political science.