Here's what Kerry said at the time he voted to give Bush the authority to
use force as an OPTIONAL , IF NECESSARY, with UN Security Council approval,
only if an IMMINENT threat is real and as a LAST RESORT:
"Let me be clear, the vote I will give to the President is for one reason
and one reason only: To disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, if we
cannot accomplish that objective through new, tough weapons inspections in
joint concert with our allies. "
"In giving the President this authority, I expect him to fulfill the
commitments he has made to the American people in recent days - to work with
the United Nations Security Council to adopt a new resolution setting out
tough and immediate inspection requirements, and to act with our allies at
our side if we have to disarm Saddam Hussein by force. If he fails to do so,
I will be among the first to speak out. "
"If we do wind up going to war with Iraq, it is imperative that we do so
with others in the international community, unless there is a showing of a
grave, imminent - and I emphasize "imminent" - threat to this country which
requires the President to respond in a way that protects our immediate
national security needs. "
"Let there be no doubt or confusion about where we stand on this. I will
support a multilateral effort to disarm him by force, if we ever exhaust
those other options, as the President has promised, but I will not support a
unilateral U.S. war against Iraq unless that threat is imminent and the
multilateral effort has not proven possible under any circumstances. "
"In voting to grant the President the authority, I am not giving him carte
blanche to run roughshod over every country that poses or may pose some kind
of potential threat to the United States. Every nation has the right to act
preemptively, if it faces an imminent and grave threat, for its self-defense
under the standards of law. The threat we face today with Iraq does not meet
that test yet. I emphasize "yet." Yes, it is grave because of the deadliness
of Saddam Hussein's arsenal and the very high probability that he might use
these weapons one day if not disarmed. But it is not imminent, and no one in
the CIA, no intelligence briefing we have had suggests it is imminent. None
of our intelligence reports suggest that he is about to launch an attack. "
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/wmdquotes.asp