This morning, the Washington Post published
John Edwards' admission that he did the wrong thing in 2002.
This is the right thing for all Democratic leaders to do.
Tim Russert asked Howard Dean about this statement by John Edwards this morning on Meet the Press and Howard Dean supported John Edwards in his admission.
I agree with Howard Dean.
I want honest government.
The first step to honest government in America must be that all Democrats who voted yes on the Iraq Resolution must issue statements like Edwards' this morning. They must say that they made a mistake because they were lied to, because they based it on corrupt intelligence, and then they must specify their plan for our withdrawal from Iraq and the rescinding of all the U.S. no-bid reconstruction contracts that underlie our President's decision to go to war.
Edwards did exactly so, this morning in The Washington Post.
Edwards said this -
I was wrong.
Almost three years ago we went into Iraq to remove what we were told -- and what many of us believed and argued -- was a threat to America. But in fact we now know that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction when our forces invaded Iraq in 2003. The intelligence was deeply flawed and, in some cases, manipulated to fit a political agenda.
It was a mistake to vote for this war in 2002. I take responsibility for that mistake. It has been hard to say these words because those who didn't make a mistake -- the men and women of our armed forces and their families -- have performed heroically and paid a dear price.
The world desperately needs moral leadership from America, and the foundation for moral leadership is telling the truth.
While we can't change the past, we need to accept responsibility, because a key part of restoring America's moral leadership is acknowledging when we've made mistakes or been proven wrong -- and showing that we have the creativity and guts to make it right.
That is a timely, decisive, responsible statement.
It is not enough for our leaders to give politically astute but vague admissions regarding their behavior in 2002. It is not enough for them to claim that if they had known the real information, there may have never been a vote at all, which is what Howard Dean said this morning was Hillary Clinton's comment.
The Democrats need to be sure and swift on this issue in order to be able to argue that Democrats are strong on national security and that their values are different than those of the GOP, who loyally fall behind George Bush and Dick Cheney on this issue.
Given this action, if I had to vote for President tomorrow, I'd cast my vote for John Edwards.