let's note that not only did it only receive 4 nays in the Senate, it received only 4 nays in the House. As I mentioned before, neither Kerry, Kucinich or Lieberman voted on it. Edwards voted Yea. I certainly don't know the details of this bill, I haven't read it, I don't know enough to know how I would have voted on it, but between these lopsided margins and the false facts we've been presented with, MrS&V's attack seems quite out of line.
House vote:
http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2003&rollnumber=543Senate vote:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=1&vote=00445
US Senate approves sanctions on Syria
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The White House, which in principle opposes moves by Congress to restrict diplomatic options in dealing with problematic relations, has gone from opposing the Syria Bill to accepting it as inevitable.
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The US has long complained that Syria gives sanctuary to leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two Palestinian groups designated as terrorist organisations by the State Department.
The Bill states that Syria must end its support for terrorism and its 13-year military occupation of Lebanon by withdrawing its 20,000 troops, stop efforts to buy or make weapons of mass destruction and long- range ballistic missiles and stop terrorists and weapons from entering Iraq.
As we are becoming accustomed to, Byrd strikes the only cautionary note:
Senator Robert Byrd, a long-serving member of the US Congress and outspoken critic of US military policy in the Middle East, said the Bill would be misused by US policy makers to justify future military action against Damascus.
He said sections of the Bill 'build a case against Syria, and I fear that those provisions could later be used to build a case for a military intervention'.
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,219704,00.html
I'll admit that for me, Byrd's argument would be pretty convincing. I certainly don't want to stick up for Hamas and Islamic Jihad or in favor of Syria's occupation of Lebanon, but I don't think this is the time to escalate things with another country. But if Dennis Kucinich had shown up and voted on this bill, it would have changed nothing, just like the vote Kerry didn't cast.