BOSTON — Late one night in September 2002, Senate Democrats were bitterly debating whether to authorize war with Iraq. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) had been agonizing over the issue, but now was urging colleagues to support a compromise that would still give President Bush much of the power he sought. Liberals were steamed.
"Why would you trust the president?" asked Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday August 04, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 48 words Type of Material: Correction
Kerry's Iraq policy -- An article in Thursday's Section A about Sen. John F. Kerry's position on the war in Iraq said Iraq "kicked out" U.N. weapons inspectors in 1998. The U.N. pulled out its inspectors that year because the Baghdad regime had stopped cooperating with their efforts.
Despite such objections, Kerry two weeks later voted for the congressional resolution paving the way for the war. And no issue has dogged him more than that single vote, which has come under fire from the left and the right.
Many Democrats have criticized him for supporting the war. Republicans have accused him of changing his position for political gain.
A look at how Kerry made up his mind on the war vote indicates that he was conflicted before he cast his vote. The concerns that apparently haunted him -- the questions he asked at public hearings, the caveats and reservations he voiced on the Senate floor before casting his vote -- reflected his ambivalence as well as his ambition. And that ambivalence sowed the seeds of Kerry's future shifts on the issue, including his vote a year later against a bill providing $87 billion in aid that went mainly to Iraq.
Republicans sought to spotlight Kerry's record on Iraq by releasing a video Wednesday that portrayed him as inconsistent and indecisive -- an attack launched as Democrats formally nominated him as their presidential candidate. But what critics assail as opportunism, supporters praise as evidence of his ability to rethink issues and respond to changing circumstances.
And the circumstances concerning Iraq have changed significantly since the 2002 vote. While it now seems that Iraq had not stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, lawmakers then faced ambiguous evidence. The political climate, meanwhile, put pressure on Kerry to go along with Bush's Iraq policy.
As the matter came to a head in Congress, polls showed strong public support for Bush's get-tough approach toward Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. And most analysts predicted that Democrats would suffer losses in that November's midterm election if a large contingent of the party voted against the war.
All that has since been upended: More people now disapprove of Bush's handling of the Iraq situation than approve of it, surveys show, and opposition to the war proved an asset, not a liability, in the Democratic presidential primaries.
