Senator Hillary Clinton adroitly reinforced her foreign policy credentials on Monday with a speech at George Washington University in which she outlined how she would end the Iraq war and withdraw US troops. Her address provided the most comprehensive, reality-based and practical-minded set of steps that so far anybody in the presidential race has yet given for a serious exit strategy from Iraq. On taking over the presidency in January 2009, she says she will instruct the Joint Chiefs of Staff to draw up a plan for withdrawal to start within sixty days of her inauguration; she will next convene a regional stabilization group composed of states bordering Iraq, major US allies and other global powers to find an agreement on how to support a durable Iraqi state -- a long overdue proposal, first put forward by another Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry, in the 2004 race; and she will ask the most important multilateral organization on the planet, the United Nations, for its involvement as a "neutral, honest broker" to forge political reconciliation in Iraq. These, along with a number of other steps, are specific, detailed and intelligent approaches to the end-game in Iraq and strengthen her claim to be the most prepared among the candidates for settling this tragic war.
http://www.comw.org/pda/0512exitplans.html#experts
The trick will be to pick one that would actually work AND then implement it, in the face of fierce opposition (here, there & almost everywhere).
1. Get on a plane.
2. Fly west.
Wake me up when somebody gives the order.
If you also knew that the Biden strategy for ending the civil war in Iraq is the ONLY viable and comprehensive strategy for promoting and facilitating (NOT imposing or dictating) a political settlement in Iraq based on federalism and the Iraqi constitution (NOT partition) and that is has attracted support from all corners - including a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress, the permanent members of the UN Security Council, most of the sectarian leaders in Iraq, and even Turkey is on board with the essential elements - then you would have discarded this post all together in favor of one explaining why this strategy has not yet been implemented and what in the Hell we have to do to insure that it is!
Unfortunately, NONE of the remaining presidential candidates - including the presumptive Republican nominee - have demonstrated that they understand the first thing about what will be required to end the civil war in Iraq and allow for a responsible withdrawal of US forces without leaving a failed state behind.
Yep. Very adroit. Recycling the 2004 Kerry plan is a master stroke. Anyway, her speech is at
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=6552
See how it works? And yet we still bother to go to the polls and vote. That makes us either sweetly naive or just stupid.
http://www.currencytrading.net/2007/20-hidden-ways-the-iraq-war-is-affecting-the-us-dollar/
She knew better. She voted for it. She could have showed some leadership, spoke out against it or at least voted for the Levin Amendment. She didn't. She wanted to run for president someday.
I'm sorry, I just don't trust her to do the right thing as far as Iraq is concerned. If somehow she is told by one of her consultants that ending it would affect her chances of reelection, if by some miracle she got the Nom and beat McCain, she wouldn't do it.
Her vote, that she still defends? She is a hologram.
Every savy negotiator understands that both sides must want to negotiate for a successful negotiation. And why would these people negotiate when she is telling everyone we are pulling out no matter what the outcome?
If I were an Iraqi, I don't know how pleased I would be to have some of the most barbaric regimes of the 21st century deciding on my destiny. Thanks, but no thanks.
And what would Miss Hillary do when an Al Queda suicide bomber blows up a heavily trafficked marketplace during this conference? Blame it on Bush? Probably - and then just sacrifice every good citizen of Iraq by withdrawing our troops.