Reading Derrick Jackson's column this morning, I have finally figured out a way to explain what's wrong with the shrub's effort to "blame" the action in Iraq on Kerry's vote to "authorize" the use of force.
As most everybody who reads the paper with any regularity knows by now, every police officer in the country is "authorized" to use lethal force in order to protect himself from harm or to save another person's life. This authorization does not, however, give the police officer the right to shoot (to kill, as he's been taught) whomever he happens to suspect of having done wrong, much less someone who might be simply planning to break the law.
In the event, whenever a police officer fires his weapon, whether he shoots someone or not, that action is reviewed and, if it is determined to have been reckless or unwarranted, he is liable to be dismissed.
Now, there may be an instance where the Chief of Police is also found to have been lax or irresponsible in the command and training of his subordinates, but the City Council, which "authorized" the use of lethal force by ordinance, will only be held responsible for the misuse of this authority, if there is reason to conclude that the Chief should have been disciplined earlier.
You may ask why the City Council even has to pass an ordinance to authorize the police chief and his subordinates to use lethat force. The reason is quite simple. If this authorization is misused, then the council, the representative of the citizens, is obligated to make some compensation to the victim of an unlawful act by its agents. In other words, the council, sitting as a legislative body, not only agrees to pay for the weapons and bullets the police will be able to use, but agrees to accept a certain responsibility that they will be used well.
Now, what the shrub would have us believe is that because Kerry and the other senators gave him the go-ahead to exercise his executive authority in dealing with a foreign country, the Senate "told" him to go shoot up Iraq. On the one hand, he would have us believe he's the Commander in Chief; on the other, he asserts that he's just an errand boy.