At American Thinker, Bob Weir writes of politicians who lack the integrity to stand behind their own previous positions regarding the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Can you guess who made the following statements, only to conveniently forget them (or blame someone else for them) later? Answers are in Weir's column.
1. "Iraq is a long way from here, but what happens there matters a great deal here. For, the risk that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face and it is a threat against which we must and will stand firm."
2. ". . . do we take some ambiguous route to give Saddam more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made?"
3. "There are such things as international outlaws. I'm not sure China is, but I'm quite sure Iran and Iraq are."
4. "Someday, he will surely rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and I‘m certain he will use them as he has before."
5. "Saddam Hussein certainly has chemical and biological weapons. There's no question about that."
6. "There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons."
7. "We know he continues to attempt to gain access to additional capability, including nuclear capability."
8. "Saddam Hussein has, in effect, thumbed his nose at the world community and I think the president (Bush) is approaching this in the right fashion."
9. Asked: "Do you think we could have disarmament (in Iraq) without regime change?" Answered: "I doubt it! I can support the president (Bush), I can support an action (war) against Saddam Hussein because I think it's in the long term interests of our national security."
10. "Serving on the Intelligence Committee and seeing day after day and week after week the briefings on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and his plans on using those weapons; he can not be allowed to have those weapons. It‘s just that simple!"
11. "Bill, I support the president's efforts to disarm Saddam Hussein. I think he (Bush) was right on in the speech he gave. The lessons we learned following September 11 were that we can't wait to be attacked again. Saddam has not done the right thing, so we're left with no alternative but to take action."
What do you call someone who is too craven to stand behind their own decisions when the going gets tough?
Weir calls them poltroons.
It's a handy word that happens to fit.
We have a shortage of leaders and a surfeit of poltroons.
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