THE WAPO VERSUS THE DEMOCRATS

47 GOP Senators decided to try to foil a nuclear agreement with Iran and the WaPo had the gall to offer a defense of their actions by printing this paragraph:

Jim Wright, the Democratic House speaker during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, was accused of interfering when he met with opposing leaders in Nicaragua’s contra war. Three House Democrats went to Iraq in 2002 before President George W. Bush’s invasion to try to head off war. And Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, went to Syria in 2007 to meet with President Bashar al-Assad against the wishes of the Bush administration, which was trying to isolate him.

I was curious about the 3 Dems who visited Iraq before our illegal & immoral invasion and this is what I found (h/t LexisNexis) and it isn't anywhere near as bad was what the GOP Senators did:

The New York Sun

October 1, 2002 Tuesday

Stay Out of Weapons Inspectors' Way, U.S. Lawmakers Say

BYLINE: By SAMEER N. YACOUB

SECTION: FOREIGN; Pg. 5

LENGTH: 393 words

DATELINE: BAGHDAD, Iraq

Visiting American lawmakers urged both Iraq and America yesterday not to interfere in the inspection process, adding that war is not the only way out of the crisis.

"There is a way to solve this crisis without war. It is for the Iraqis not to interfere and for the United States not to interfere in the inspections process," Rep. David Bonior, a Michigan Democrat, said during a news conference.

Rep. Jim McDermott, a Washington Democrat who has suggested the Bush administration may be misleading the American public on the dangers posed by Iraq, said the American goal should be disarmament, not toppling Saddam.

"The American people are not with one voice on Iraq and they are debating about it like the rest of the world," Mr. McDermott said.

"Regime change requires war. Disarming can be done diplomatically," Mr. McDermott said.

President Bush, accusing Saddam of stockpiling weapons of mass destruction and harboring terrorists, has argued it is impossible to disarm Iraq while Saddam remains in power.

After blocking the return of U.N. weapons inspectors for four years, Saddam said on September 16 that they could return and conduct "unfettered" restrictions.

Since then, Iraq has said the inspectors would be limited by a side agreement he negotiated in 1998 with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The agreement considerably limits the scope of inspections.

Arriving in Ankara, Turkey's capital, Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said, "Iraq will help [weapons inspectors] to find out the truth through scientific methods."

America considers Turkish support crucial for military action against Iraq.

Turkey hosts American and British warplanes at the southern Incirlik air base, which served as a staging point for air raids on Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. So far, Turkey has said it opposes a strike against Iraq.

In Baghdad, Mr. Bonior said access should be unrestricted "because both the U.S. government and Congress are serious about the need for such access and they are very serious about enforcing that."

Mr. Bonior, Mr. McDermott, and a third Democrat, Rep. Mike Thompson of California, arrived in Baghdad September 27, saying their aim was to gather information about Iraq's humanitarian crisis and make Iraqi officials understand that if they wanted to avoid war, they needed to allow immediate and unfettered access to U.N. weapons inspectors.