Memo to Democrats: Stop Buying into the GOP Framing on Iraq

[leftchick]

Go Arianna! :applause:

<snip>

But that's exactly what Hillary Clinton did during the Senate debate on Don Rumsfeld, when she took to the floor and, in a single statement, showed why, despite everything that is going wrong in Iraq, Democrats aren't getting more traction on the issue.

"We went to war with the secretary of defense we had," she said. "Now is the time to complete the mission with a new secretary of defense that we need."

<snip>

But as a message it was a total loser: "..complete the mission." "Mission"? Labeling the directionless chaos in Iraq a "mission" gives it legitimacy and a sense of purpose it tragically lacks. It's a wholesale acceptance of the White House framing, playing into the notion that this is a mission that can, with a little perseverance, be "completed" -- and, indeed, that we are "well on the way" to completing.

Please tell us, Sen. Clinton: what mission are you talking about? Avoiding getting caught in the crossfire of a sectarian civil war? That's looking more and more like Mission Impossible. Bringing a stable democracy to Iraq? Even if we replace Rummy with a very young man with a lifetime in which to complete this mission, democracy won't be delivered at the end of a bayonet.

But Hillary was on a rhetorical mission -- using the term to describe Iraq four more times during her remarks, including the idea that by replacing Rumsfeld the Senate could "redeem this mission", and "give it a chance for success."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/memo-to-democrats-stop-b_b_28933.html

[Phredicles]

1. Of course, Hillary is a pro-war Democrat, which is a problem of a

different sort.

[Parisle]

2. Worse than that,......

---- Hilliary is an ambitious politician who wants to cover all the bases, and reap no rejection for her "beliefs." My personal belief is that when Hilliary (or hundreds of other democrats) voted FOR the authorization to use military force, they already knew Bush & Co. were lying,... but they also knew that most Americans at the time were buying the lie,.... so they did the politically expedient thing. They voted to save their careers in government, while screwing the nation long-term. All this "We believed it!" shit is making me sick,..... I didn't believe it,... and I had no problem seeing that the administration was lying about the run-up to war. The democrats caved, plain and simple. Not easy trying to rebuild a party out of a bunch of squishy opportunists.

[Union Thug]

3. How could they NOT have known? Even a semi-educated ...

...nobody like myself could do the research and debunk the bullshit coming out of this administration.

They did what was politically expedient, as you say, and for this reason, I don't trust any of those that voted for war authorization.

[Phredicles]

4. Another problem with the "We were duped" line is,

who wants dupable leaders?

I think the best thing a candidate who voted to authorize the war and wants our vote now could say is, "I see now how wrong I was". It doesn't make everything okay, but then nothing could. But it at least shows a person's willingness to take responsibility and learn from their mistakes. I'd much sooner vote for someone who never make the mistake in the first place, but I'd feel better about voting for someone who cast such a vote if they were able to face up to what they'd done.