Hillary's War
Hillary Clinton addressed a group of veterans in Kansas City yesterday and proclaimed that "we've begun to change tactics in Iraq," and those changed tactics are "working." "We're just years too late in our tactics," she lamented.
(Note: The first report I read, on Huffington Post and from the New York Post, quoted Hillary as saying "the surge" is working. Now that I have seen the full speech, I can quote her exactly. "We've begun to change tactics" . . . But what else is she talking about except George W. Bush's Hail Mary surge? What other "new tactics" have we begun to try? The surge is the story. She was, of course, talking about the surge. Arguing about how she characterized it misses the essential and crucial point. It obfuscates, as in Karl Obfuscate Rove, which is exactly what every Republican argument is meant to do.)
What does Hillary mean by "working"? How is the surge working? What is it accomplishing? What is it meant to accomplish? What, in the war gospel according to Hillary, is the goal of the surge? Is it the same goal she had in mind when she voted to allow Bush to go to war in Iraq if he wanted to? Is her only regret now that our "tactics" were flawed, i. e., we did not send enough Americans to accomplish whatever the Bush/Clinton goal is right from start?
I suspect all she meant to do in Kansas City yesterday was pander a little to the Vets, be enough of the Hillary they want to get some of their votes, you know. But her declaration that the surge is "working" and that we're just "years too late in our tactics" goes beyond standard politician-pander to reveal something terribly wrong in her thinking. She has given us a glimpse beneath the mask -- there's the real Hillary. Years too late in our tactics? How many more Americans and Iraqis should have died under her leadership, with her superior tactics, to achieve her unspecified goal ("victory"?)? Does she think the American people have turned against this unwinnable, unconstitutional, criminal war only because Bush didn't surge from the beginning?
I have been thinking I would feel compelled to vote for Hillary if the Democrats nominated her because that would be the only meaningful way to cast a vote against the horrifying, entirely and eternally discredited Republican party.
I'm not sure now how meaningful that vote would really be. And I don't think I'm going to be able to do it.
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Come on folks the SURGE is working. We have seen a definite SURGE in both america and iraqi casualities.
Does any of it really make a difference anymore? The United States is dead. We have allowed our industry to move overseas,outsourced jobs, gutted public education, priced private education so far out of the reach of any but the super-rich, abandoned our elderly, sick, and poor, placed thieves and liars on pedestals, picked the pockets of the working people to give huge financial breaks to the wealthy, ignored basic rules of maintaining our infrastructure until we have horrors like the Minnesota bridge collapse and the rupture of watermains in our old cities, and we have venerated those who have commited murders, at times in the name of "National Security". What is left for anyone to respect? We now have vast numbers of students who come here for specific knowledge available (for now, until those professors die or retire to other countries) and return to their own nations because there is more opportunity in those nations than there is in this country. Our own people are losing ground, in record numbers and on many fronts. We have begun to see the snow shift, the avalanche will be following soon.
Great series of comments. It makes the Democratic party infighting look like Sunni vs. Shiite v Shiite conflict.
We should have never got involved in the war with a dictator and his forces. The people in the region should have contained him and allowed us to go after the ones that actually attacked us. So the dictator hated the Jews. A lot of people do. We once worked with him. So we were partually responsible for the murders he had committed. Besides, we are now fighting an enemy that is too tough to be defeated. Those who believe we can win the war are mistaken and should be defeated in Congress and the White House. Also, there are rumors the President allowed the attack to happen and set this country up for war. Congress should just withdraw the troops and say it was a mistake to enter the war and send our troops to the real battlefield to fight the real enemy; the Pacific and the Japanese Empire. Remember, this is 1941 and we don't dare repeat history.
How in the world could a statement made by Hillary about the partial success of the surge make you question your future vote? I don't think you really ever thought about voting for Hillary. As usual, she makes sense and is honest in her observation
Gender is about the only difference in political posture, as I perceive it, between Hillary Clinton and Karl Rove. What might truly be of interest or informative would be if King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia expressed his observations amd opinion on the various Iraq matters.
Frank,
I agree with you completely. She's pandering to the group at hand... typical mainstream politician playing the GAME. She wants to aim for the so-called 'middle-of
Regards,
SCLIB
she would tell all of us the draft is needed for our security, because bush depleted our military. Sounds to me that bush and clinton are on the same page.
Media Matters points out today that she did not, repeat, did not, say that the surge is working.
She was referring to the new tactics, which Petreas himself described, by the military commanders as working... and specifically was not talking about Baghdad.
Funny how people hear what they want to hear and ignore any contradici
That would be the "tactic" of arming and training the Taliban, er Sunni warlords, er sheiks formerly known as insurgents? That worked so well before! Why didn't we think of it sooner?
I would be willing to bet she would actually have a military draft within a year of being president.
clinton if elected will escalate the war in Iraq mark my words.
Hillary is working both sides of the isle. She threw some flesh to the red meat Republcans buy saying the surge is working and some tofu to Democrats by stating it's too late. I also can't shake the feeling that she's trying to show she has as much testosterone as anyone running for president. Personally, I don't agree with her tactics because I'm not certain what she really believes. She knows however,that regardless of what she says, if she gets the nomination, the vast majority of democrats and independents will vote for her no matter who the Republican candidate is pretty much guaranteeing her the presidency. So she probably sees her that her major task is winning over former Republican voters and thus their congressional representatives who she will be dealing with when she becomes president.
My god all this whining about a single comment! This election is to important to have a fractured democratic party.As a gay man I admire ambitious women. Can you name a single presidential candidate in the last 200 years who wasn't? I know we're not going to get gay marriage this time around. There's more at stake here. Go ahead and nominate cuddly Dennis and then when a republican gets elected and the country goes in the toilet again and thousands more die in Iraq you can all blog about how right you were.All you idiots who voted for Ralf Nader last time hang your heads low, this is your fault. I think you want the Democrats to loose so you have something to whine about for four more years! Well the price is too high for me.
The problem with Hillary, and every other liartician, is they again violated the law & their oathes of office... they abnegated their responsibilities as Congressmen & Senators to Nixon proteges..
Why didn't anyone ask Bush the obvious follow-up questions: 1) What did god tell you? 2) Does god speak to you often? Any answer short of 'just kidding' should have triggered a full neurological examination for brain tumors or cancer... delusion being a primary symptom!
Ford should never have pardoned Nixon... 'to begin healing the nation' I believe was the pretense. What kind of example did that send Cheney, Rumsfeld, or any other career political criminal..
The sooner we treat all criminals, regardless of title or stature, like criminals the faster we'll get back on course.
This Quote basically describes our current 2 party political system:
"All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach" Adolp Hitler
"The way to hell is plastered with good resolution
"Socialism (democrats) is the first neccessary step to communism.
That Creepy Crawler, Hillary, is at it again. Triangulating all over the place. How DARE she pander to the Vets in that disgusting manner -- saying the surge is "working?" I thought she'd finally come over to our side by speaking out, at last, against the war, and there she is now straddling the fence again. Trying to be all things to all people reduces her to being an empty shell. This Wicked Witch will do ANYthing to position herself for the Presidency. Wake up, Democrat primary voters. Cruella is trying to grab your pet hopes so she can sell them to the corporate monsters to trample on. Joan Wile
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