The latest rat to jump the sinking ship of Iraq is Congressman Norm Dicks of Washington. He admits that he was mislead and that Bush had doctored intelligence in the leadup to the war with Iraq.
Dicks’ reversal comes as the steady drumbeat of revelations continues about the extent of the Bush plan to fix facts around the case for war in Iraq. He is the congressman for Washington’s Sixth District, which includes Tacoma.
In addition, he has been one of the staunch backers of John Murtha. He told the Bush administration officials to their faces that their smear campaign against Murtha was outrageous and that they needed to cool it.
“Norm is a lot like Jack Murtha. These are guys with a somewhat different philosophy than me,” McDermott told The Times. “This is an extremely difficult time for them because they have to reassess what they were led to believe” about prewar intelligence.
The White House maintains it did nothing to mischaracterize what it knew about Iraq and its weapons.
Dicks’ private concerns became more public two months ago, when he surprised guests at a breakfast fundraiser with tough talk against the war.
Last Friday, the White House called Dicks to gauge his support. House GOP leaders were pushing for a vote on a resolution they hoped would put Democrats on the spot by forcing them either to endorse an immediate troop withdrawal or stay the course in Iraq.
Dicks said he told the White House that “their attack on Murtha was the most outrageous comment I’ve ever heard.”
In addition, Congressman John McDermott pointed out that this is a very difficult for those Democrats who were once among the biggest backers of the war. That is because there is a level of trust that is expected between the President and Congress. The President is supposed to be in the know and be able to be completely open and honest about impending threats to this country. And people like Dicks are key in explaining to the rest of his colleagues why we need such a war. But that level of trust has been broken.
Yesterday’s Tacoma Tribune discussed even more remarks from Dicks. Dicks stopped short of endorsing Murtha’s plan, but said he could understand his rationale:
Dicks doesn’t agree with Rep. John Murtha, who has called for troops to leave in Iraq in six months, but he said, “He may well be right if this insurgency goes much further.”
“The insurgency has gotten worse and worse,” Dicks said. “That’s where Murtha’s rationale is pretty strong. We’re talking lots of casualties with no success in sight. The American people obviously know this war is a mistake.”
In addition, Dicks said he would have voted against the war today:
Dicks said he now believes the intelligence was “doctored” and that the White House did not prepare or deploy enough troops for the insurgency that has unfolded. He said he would “absolutely not” have voted for the war had he known there were no stockpiles of WMD’s.”
The article notes that Dicks’ seeds of doubt started when he read the Joe Wilson article back in 2003. As McDermott points out, it is very painful to have to admit that one was wrong about such a high-stakes issue. But I am glad that Dicks has reached that point after two years.
But in the meantime, where is Hillary Clinton? With the continued defection of hawkish Democrats like Murtha and Dicks, that leaves her in the back of the caboose, while everybody else is leading:
Like the picture says, yet another piece of obsolete rolling stock.
