Dear Mr. Kerry:
In 2003, you said, “President Bush broke his promise to build an international coalition against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and then waged a war based on questionable intelligence.”

But on November 9, 1997, before the United States Congress , you said: “Saddam Hussein - without doubt - had weapons of mass destruction which were exceptionally threatening to surrounding countries, in fact to the entire planet. … Saddam Hussein had to be wrestled to the mat no matter what, even if the United Nations were lagging. If the UN didn’t get the clear, urgent message, then the United States was morally obligated to go it alone to see that Saddam Hussein was finished.”
source: (Ron Fournier, “Kerry Says Bush Misled Americans On War,” The Associated Press, 6/19/03)

So which is it? In 1997 Saddam “without doubt” had “WMDs”, but in 2003, President Bush acted on “questionable intelligence” of Saddam possessing WMDs? In 1997, the U.S. was “morally obligated to go it alone”, but in 2003, two years after the 9/11 attacks, a coalition of 50 nations invading Iraq as part of a war on terror constitutes failing to build an international coalition? Even if 49 of those countries withdrew their support, wouldn’t we still be “morally obligated to go it alone”? That’s what you said… didn’t you mean it?

In March, 2003, you called Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein “a legitimate threat to the stability of this nation” and said you did not regret your vote in the Senate authorizing use of military force in Iraq. You said, “I think Saddam Hussein?s weapons of mass destruction are a threat…”
source: (Sen. John Kerry As Quoted On NPR’s “All Things Considered,” 3/19/03)

Oh, I get it. You’re claiming that you said all of this, that you voted to authorize the Iraq war because George W. Bush and his administration lied to you and provided you with faulty intellilgence. Well, that makes a nice and tidy argument for you, then, doesn’t it? Afterall, you get the benefit of voting for a war to prove you’re not a typical anti-war dove, then you get to fall in lockstep with your Democrat brethren in calling for President Bush’s job for lying to you. Some people say that you’ll say and do anything for a vote. Surely, this isn’t one of those times…. is it?

So you voted for the Iraq war, now you claim Bush lied. You claim Bush lied to the world and acted on faulty intelligence. The reason I find this rhetoric fascinating is because you said “The threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real, but as I said, it is not new. It has been with us since the end of that war, and particularly in the last 4 years we know after Operation Desert Fox failed to force him to reaccept them, that he has continued to build those weapons. He has had a free hand for 4 years to reconstitute these weapons, allowing the world, during the interval, to lose the focus we had on weapons of mass destruction and the issue of proliferation.” source: (Congressional Record, 10/9/02, p. S10171) So Bush lied about Saddam’s WMDs at the same time you were claiming that such possession by Saddam was “not new” and the threat of Saddam with WMDs was “real”.

So you said in 2002 that without doubt, Saddam had WMDs, then in 2003 you called Bush a liar for saying the same thing. In 2002 you said the U.S. was morally obligated to go it alone, but in 2003 you criticize Bush for acting “unilaterally” (which by the way, you might want to inform the other 50 nations in our coalition). In 2002, you said it wasn’t news that Saddam possessed WMDs, but in 2003 you said such a conclusion constituted “faulty intelligence”.

You might sell some people on the notion that your comments in 2002 were in the heat of the moment, in response to 9/11, derived from a sense of national pride. You might claim that your statements were based on trusting the Bush administrations accounts of the state of Iraq. You migh sway some folks into feeling sorry for you being misled by the administration, and you may be able to neutralize criticism by saying you relied on bad intelligence to make your pro-war statements, and thereby get a free pass to call President Bush a liar.

You might have, if it hadn’t been for your very own statements long before President Bush came on the national scene. You see, we no longer live in a world where old statements are buried in the basements of libraries, where history is an old dusty book on a back shelf, where contradictions can be tucked away from public view. No, Mr. Kerry, we live in a world where every word, every piece of political rhetoric, every example of say-anythinig-for votes is recorded for quick retrieval in moments just like this.

It appears that these statements you made in 2002 weren’t the only statements of their kind in your political career. In fact, while you served on the Senate Intelligence Committee, let me repeat, the Senate INTELLIGENCE Committee, you said the following:

–”(I)t is imperative for us as a nation to stand our ground and for the western world to make clear that we cannot abide by any nation breaking out, so to speak, with respect to the capacity to possess and use those kinds of weapons. And so that principle is enormous…”
source: (Sen. John Kerry, Press Conference, 2/23/98)

–”Saddam Hussein has already used these weapons and has made it clear that he has the intent to continue to try, by virtue of his duplicity and secrecy, to continue to do so.”
source: (Sen. John Kerry, Press Conference, 2/23/98)

–”Saddam Hussein has violated … that standard [against using weapons of mass destruction] on several occasions previously and by most people’s expectation, no matter what agreement we come up with, may well do so again. The greater likelihood is that we will be called on to send our ships and our troops at one point in the future back to the Middle East to stand up to the next crisis.?
source: (Sen. John Kerry, Press Conference, 2/23/98)

–”We’re going to have to make some fundamental decisions about whether to follow a policy of containment or deprive Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.”
source: (The New York Times, 9/4/98)

–”…These differences over how to deal with Iraq reflect the fact that there is a superficial consensus, at best, among the Perm 5 on the degree to which Iraq poses a threat and the priority to be placed on dismantling Iraq’s weapons capability. … but whether any of these countries are legitimately prepared to sacrifice other interests to bring Iraq to heel remains questionable today, and is precisely part of the calculus that Saddam Hussein has used as he tweaks the Security Council and the international community simultaneously.”
source: (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 10/10/98, p. S12287)

–”Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a decorated Vietnam veteran, said Wednesday that no one should question the “legitimacy” of Clintons decision to bomb Iraq. “I am confident that every reasonable member of the United States Congress and reasonable people of this country will understand the legitimacy of this moment. And no one will question that once again, once too many times, it is Hussein who has precipitated this confrontation and no one else.”?
source: (Eric Schmitt, “Many In GOP Voice Suspicion Of Attack Timing,” Topeka Capital-Journal, 12/17/98)

–”[Saddam Hussein] cannot be permitted to go unobserved and unimpeded toward his horrific objective of amassing a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. This is not a matter about which there should be any debate whatsoever in the Security Council, or, certainly, in this Nation.”
source: (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 11/9/97, pp. S12254 -S12255)

– “[W]hile we should always seek to take significant international actions on a multilateral rather than a unilateral basis whenever that is possible, if in the final analysis we face what we truly believe to be a grave threat to the well-being of our Nation or the entire world and it cannot be removed peacefully, we must have the courage to do what we believe is right and wise.”
source: (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 11/9/97, pp. S12254 -S12255)

and finally, wayyyyyyyy back in 1991, you said, “Today, we are confronted by a regional power, Iraq, which has attacked a weaker state, Kuwait. “The crisis is even more threatening by virtue of the fact that Iraq has developed a chemical weapons capability, and is pursuing a nuclear weapons development program. And Saddam Hussein has demonstrated a willingness to use such weapons of mass destruction in the past, whether in his war against Iran or against his own Kurdish population.”
source: (Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 10/2/90, p. S14330)

So I ask you again, Mr. Kerry, in light of the fact that you’ve gone on record for the last 13 years saying Saddam had and continued to develop WMDs, used them and would use them again, and in light of the fact that you voted for this present war, presumably based on your vast knowledge of the situation, including your time on the Senate INTELLIGENCE Committee, why do you now parade around the campaign trail calling the President of the United States a liar? Why do you say he misled our country and the world? Why do you contradict the very statements you’ve made for over a decade to take a jab at the Commander in Chief?

Is it because you’ve grown accustomed to protesting wars? Is it because you’re used to criticizing the leadership of the United States? Is it because you didn’t think your past would come back to haunt you? Or is it simply because you have a burning passion, a lifetime of expectation, a hunger for the feeling of power that comes with being President of the United States of America?

Sometimes, Mr. Kerry, you learn that with power comes responsibility. With leadership comes integrity. With an undying sense of entitlement for a position you wait a lifetime for….comes disappointment. The embarrassing way you’ve conducted yourself in your pursuit for the office of President of the United States of America assures me and many others that you will never achieve that goal. You see, Mr. Kerry, we Americans have faced this test before and we Americans are smart enough to learn from our mistakes. We Americans like our land of the free and home of the brave. Make no mistake about it, you Mr. Kerry, will never be President of MY United States of America.

Sincerely,
An Average American