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A shift in story on Clinton’s war opposition

November 28, 2007

Is Bill Clinton having an I-didn't-inhale-moment on Iraq?

The former president - a political titan with a penchant for straying from his wife's careful campaign script - raised eyebrows in Muscatine, Iowa, yesterday by telling supporters he "opposed Iraq from the beginning."

But Clinton's earliest published comments on the war, gleaned from press accounts, portray ambivalence, not outright opposition: He was supportive of efforts to strip Saddam Hussein of biological and nuclear weapons while being critical of the Bush administration for rushing United Nations weapons inspectors.

Moreover, Clinton didn't speak out against his wife's October 2002 vote authorizing the invasion, even though mainstream war opponents, led by current Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, voted against it.

"If we have to take military action, I will support the president if I believe he has done everything reasonably possible" to avoid war, he said in October 2003.

"He has not clearly opposed the war from the start," said Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz yesterday. "Like his wife, the former president has been critical of the Iraq war in recent months, but at one time he gave President Bush the benefit of the doubt."

In a statement last night, Clinton campaign spokesman Jay Carson said, "As he said from the beginning and many times since, President Clinton disagreed with taking the country to war without allowing the weapons inspectors to finish their jobs."

The former president's remarks somewhat overshadowed the campaign's big endorsement yesterday from Barbra Streisand.

"Hillary is a powerful voice for change as we find our country at an important crossroads," the singer said in a statement.

Source:  Newsday

Posted by George · Filed Under Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Flipflops, Iraq, News 

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