Robert Scheer on the Iraq debate (Damn!)

[ProSense]

Robert Scheer
06.21.2006

Hillary's Shameful Straddling on Iraq

How do you triangulate among death, hypocrisy and stupidity? Not at all logically, which is why Hillary Clinton’s dissembling on Iraq has become a fatal embarrassment not only for her but for anyone who hopes she can provide progressive leadership for the nation. If she has still not found the courage to reverse course on this disastrous war, why assume that as president she would behave any differently?

It is unconscionable that those who can accurately measure the true cost of the Iraq folly in wasted lives and resources — more than 2,500 Americans, tens of thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of billions of dollars — dare prefer her to potential 2008 presidential election rivals John Kerry, Al Gore, Russ Feingold and John Edwards, who have all come to speak honestly of this quagmire and our need to extricate ourselves from it.

If your priority is to support an inspiring female candidate to break America’s ultimate glass ceiling, why not draft Barbara Boxer? Not electable? Nonsense: The California senator thrashed her conservative GOP opponent in a reelection campaign that shunned the failed strategy of Democratic hacks and instead emphasized principle over opportunism. She proved her political integrity again this past week by voting alongside Kerry and Feingold to set a date for getting out of Iraq.

Not so Sen. Clinton, who seems determined to revive the Cold War liberalism that gave us the Vietnam War — which, according to Robert McNamara, the brilliant Democratic war architect who later conceded he himself didn’t believe in that enterprise, took more than 3 million lives.

“I do not think it is a smart strategy, either, for the president to continue with his open-ended commitment, which I think does not put enough pressure on the new Iraqi government,” said Clinton last week at the “Take Back America” conference. “Nor do I think it is smart strategy to set a date certain. I do not agree that that is in the best interests.”

This is pure gibberish designed to sound reasonable. The Bush administration has pressured the Iraqi government plenty, from trying to place its handpicked intelligence “assets” in power right after seizing Baghdad through the unseemly act of a sitting U.S. president dropping into Iraq last week uninvited and unannounced — a mockery of the claim that we have transferred sovereignty to the Iraqi people.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/hillarys-shameful-stradd_b_23468.html

[Blaukraut]

1. Clinton, among other Dems in the Senate remind me of

weak parents that cannot follow through with discipline. 'If you don't behave this instant, no television for you tonight'. Empty threat. Television will be on and kid in front of it, and kid knows it.
The same deal is going on with Iraq. 'You better get your government straightened out or we will leave....eventually..no worries, it could take a looong time, so carry on being dysfunctional'

[ProSense]

2. It's kind of astonishing!

All the apologies, decrying the illegal war and lambasting the Repugs, only to come to this weak position.

[karynnj]

5. But that's what she did on Alito too

Strong speech on why he was wrong. Then by all reports she was livid when Kerry tried to filibuster. She's all talk, no action.

[wisteria]

3. Your right. And i really like the parent strategy. I think it is easy to

comprehend.Firm,but caring deadline, resulting in an urgency to achieve a goal , or ineffectual recommendations and suggestions resulting in very little action.

Sometimes, it is so frustrating to be a Democrat.

[ProSense]

4. Taylor Marsh: Harry Reid Sticks it to John Kerry

Snip...

But, frankly, the above text in bold shows what's wrong with Democrats. There is one proposal that is strong and unequivocal and whether you like it or not, whether Harry Reid likes it or not, it's authored by John Kerry and Russ Feingold.

I'm sure Hillary Clinton is overjoyed and so are many others, thinking setting a date certain is silly. But timidity hasn't worked for us before. It looks like Kerry is the only one who learned the lesson deep enough to finally lead on it.

Even as Senator Jack Reed was talking about the Levin-Reed resolution, he said that the majority of Americans favor a deadline for withdrawal in Iraq. Unfortunately, that specific idea came from Senator John Kerry, wherein Senator Harry Reid decided to stick him with a political shiv, camoflaged in a debate that will come in the cloak of darkness. Children.

Let's just tell it like it is. Democrats in the Senate may not believe "cut and run," but they're still afraid of the label. When you're afraid of anything you cannot lead. The debate continues on C-SPAN.

http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=24174

Couldn't agree more!