Robert Scheer: Hillary's Calculations Add Up to War (Truthdig)

[marmar]

Hillary’s Calculations Add Up to War

Posted on Feb 20, 2007


By Robert Scheer

Let’s face it: No matter how much many of us who oppose the war in Iraq would also love to elect a female president, Hillary Clinton is not a peace candidate. She is an unrepentant hawk, à la Joe Lieberman. She believed invading Iraq was a good idea, all available evidence to the contrary, and she has, once again, made it clear that she still does.

“If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast a vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from,” she said in New Hampshire last week, confusing contempt for antiwar Americans—now a majority—with the courage of her indefensible conviction that she bears no responsibility for the humanitarian, economic and military disaster our occupation has wrought.

As a candidate for ’08, Hillary clearly calculates that her war chest, star power, gender and pro-choice positions will be sufficient for her to triumph in the primaries, while being “tough,” pro-military and “supporting our president” will secure her flank in the general election against those who would paint her as that horrible beast, “a liberal.”

A winning strategy? That remains to be seen. It certainly does not bode well for the future of the nation, however, should it be. Consider the parallel case of President Lyndon Johnson, who can be heard on tapes of his White House conversations ruminating that he never believed in the Vietnam War and pursued it only to deny Barry Goldwater and the Republicans a winning campaign issue. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070220_hillarys_calculations_add_up_to_war/

[Larkspur]

1. Agree, Hillary is a female Lyndon Johnson, not a Margaret Thatcher ver 2.0

If Bush succeeds in attacking Iran, he will leave a violent mess in the Middle East for whoever is the next President. If Hillary becomes President, I can see her making the same mistakes Lyndon Johnson did with Vietnam. If she becomes President, she could be a one-term wonder.

[Dhalgren]

2. This is why I cannot support Clinton.

Our elected officials have to held accountable for the decisions that they make - not just Republican officials, but Democratic ones, as well. Making an error in judgment should not be the end of a career (unless it is a terrible one), but disagreeing or refusing to admit that a mistake was made is indefensible. There was a point at which Clinton could have salvaged herself, at least in my eyes, but that point has been passed. If she tried now, I would not believe her. She is unsupportable, as far as I am concerned...

[marmar]

5. I know what you mean....

She was never my candidate of choice, but she's really losing me now with all this hawkishness. I don't know if she's doing it because she knows there's a perception among a lot of men, spoken or unspoken, that a woman isn't "tough enough" to run the military, but she's really soured me on her over the last week.

[pocoloco]

3. Hillary and Edwards both made their case for AIPAC support.

If bush* doesn't bomb Iran, Hillary gets to!

[longship]

4. Sen. Clinton is digging herself a deeper hole

This position is plain unconscionable. Ms. Clinton had better start listening to the people instead of her handlers. Does she really think that all these questions about her war vote are mere noise? Her responses to them, all equivocations, do absolutely nothing to eliminate the elephant in the room, that her position on Iraq has been consistently 180 degrees out of wack with public opinion. This position may play well in New York state, but it's not going to help her get nominated to national office.