Bill Clinton Tells Iowans He Opposed Iraq From Start

(By Mary Ann Chastain -- Associated Press)

WAR STANCE

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Bill Clinton Tells Iowans He Opposed Iraq From Start

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Former president Bill Clinton said yesterday that he "opposed Iraq from the beginning," glossing over the more nuanced views of the war he has expressed over time. Clinton made the remarks while campaigning for his wife in Iowa -- a state where many Democrats are against the war -- and as he expressed bitterness over getting a tax cut with money that could have been spent on the military.

"Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning, I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers," Clinton said. He said he "should not have gotten" the tax cuts he received as a wealthy earner.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) voted to authorize the war in Iraq and has never apologized for her vote, even as the Democratic nominating process has intensified and she has been drawn into a three-way race with a pair of more outspoken Iraq war foes, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former senator John Edwards of North Carolina.

Both the former president and his wife have grown increasingly critical of the war's management in recent years. Both have also pointed to their remarks, made before the invasion, in which they said they would like to see weapons inspectors finish their work in Iraq before the launch of an attack -- a distinction that has allowed both Clintons to claim consistency on Iraq.

Sen. Hillary Clinton has, at times, even cited the experience her husband had dealing with the Iraqi government in the 1990s as one reason that she gave President Bush the benefit of the doubt when she voted for the war in 2002.

Jay Carson, a spokesman for the Clintons, pointed to those comments about weapons inspections as evidence that the former president was not trying to rewrite history. "As he said from the beginning and many times since, President Clinton disagreed with taking the country to war in Iraq without allowing the weapons inspectors to finish their jobs," Carson said.

But past remarks made by the former president do leave open a question about how fervently Clinton opposed the war at the outset and before it grew widely unpopular. In immediate hindsight, Clinton did not sound like a fierce critic.

"I supported the president when he asked for authority to stand up against weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," Clinton said on May 18, 2003, during a commencement speech at Tougaloo College in Mississippi.

-- Anne E. Kornblut