Pete Buttigieg recently slammed Joe Biden, his current competition for the Democratic presidential nomination, over his vote to authorize use of military force in Iraq. Given the subsequent state of affairs with Iran, the judgment behind this support is certainly worthy of consideration.

However, Buttigieg should then be supporting Bernie Sanders for the nomination. Sanders actually voted against such authorization, thus passing the “judgment” test that Buttigieg has recently adopted. Although, due to the increasing attention being paid to his own lack of any real experience, this new criteria may be a diversion and attempt to be relevant on the subject.

Biden was wrong on his vote, as were many other Democratic senators who later ran for and/or received the presidential nomination of their party. But not having been in the position of either Biden or Sanders, Buttigieg has the luxury of second-guessing those decisions.

I have no idea what Buttigieg’s position on invading Iraq was at the time, unlike Barack Obama, who was on record against intervention and benefited from that opposition on his way to the White House. Nor can we ever know how he would have voted had he been in Congress.

That said, given the “safe” and non-controversial positions that Butteigieg has been increasingly taking, it’s a fair possibility that he might not have been far off from the positions taken by Biden and other establishment Democrats in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon.

David Wassel

White Oak

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