Barbara Lee And Dick Durbin's "Nobody-Could-Have-Known" Defense

Lee also inspired others to speak out with the same warnings. The syndicated columnist William Raspberry, on September 25, wrote: "I don't know that Barbara Lee will ever be vindicated in the eyes of those who see her as the next thing to a traitor. I only know that a lot of people, myself included, are having second thoughts about how important, useful or relevant it is to cast the unspeakable evil unleashed on America two weeks ago in terms of war." He added: "as so often happens when some great evil disrupts our lives and threatens our sense of security, we are in danger of becoming the very thing we hate."

To say that Lee was vilified for her warnings is a serious understatement. She was deluged with s o many death threats that she was given around-the-clock police protection. The Washington Times printed an Op-Ed by Herbert Romerstein declaring that "Ms. Lee is a long-practicing supporter of America's enemies -- from Fidel Castro on down." On NPR, Juan Williams compared her to Jerry Falwell and said they both "stand out in a nation where President Bush, who did not win the popular vote, now has the support of 82 percent of Americans." National Review approvingly cited David Horowitz's denunciation that "Barbara Lee is not an anti-war activist, she is an anti-American communist who supports America's enemies and has actively collaborated with them in their war against America." Michelle Malkin labelled her "treacherous" and also quoted Horowitz's attack. Letters to the Editor sprung up in newspapers across this country similar to this one from J. Keith Wedinger in the Columbus Dispatch:

"I simply cannot believe the gall and the absolute insensitivity of U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif... How can she possibly be the only member of both houses of Congress to vote against the resolution allowing any and all necessary force to be used to retaliate for the horrific attacks endured by this nation?

"I hope her name is printed in big, bold letters in all California newspapers describing her vote as an near act of treason against the United States. I hope residents of her district ask for her immediate resignation."

Barbara Lee's lone vote against the 2001 AUMF -- three days after the 9/11 attack -- was an act of incredible and rare courage that is worth commemorating in its own right. But it was also prescient and wise, using America's past bad acts to warn of the dangers likely to be unleashed by enacting it. If Dick Durbin wants to acknowledge his gross error in voting in favor of such a blank check for presidential war-making -- one that led to 12 years of war in numerous nations with no end in sight -- he should do so honestly. Instead of pretending that nobody could possibly have known this would happen as a deceitful means of excusing his bad acts, he should instead acknowledge that there were people who did know and tried to warn the nation about it, but those weren't the types of voices to which he paid any attention because they weren't emanating from the Pentagon, the Brookings Institution and the columns of Tom Friedman. 

That is the mistake he should acknowledge and learn to rectify.