Hillary’s War
From the New York Times
by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta

the article prints to about 15 pages but it is very illuminating

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/magazine/03Hillary-t.html?n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fG%2fGerth%2c%20Jeff&_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

from HKO
The story attached is a well documented chronology of Hillary’s support and criticism of the Iraq War, possibly indicating what kind of president she would be. As controversial as the war and its execution is, I consider it an act of cowardice to vote and contribute to the decision to invade Iraq and then refuse or minimize any responsibility for the results; and an even greater act of cowardice to then use the discord from the results for pure political gain.

I would have some respect for taking direct responsibility, and then engaging in some in depth analysis on how the game has changed and how we can not just turn back the clock and pretend the decision did not happen. It would be irresponsible to invade and unseat a government and then abandon the citizens to the whims of tyrannical theological fascists. The decision to invade, good or bad, right or wrong is not so easily reversible.

Al Qaeda may or may not have been tied to Saddam Hussein depending on who you want to read or listen to; but the harsh reality is that they are there now and Bin Laden himself has made this the defining battlefield. They were the enemy before deposing Saddam and they are still the enemy. They have declared war on us.
Abandoning this battlefield in defeat would be a disaster we would likely regret terribly. Anything other than a commitment to defeat the enemy, regardless of how or why we got there, and regardless of anyone’s time table would likely be disastrous.

It is also a worthless exercise to merely demonize Bush. The reality is that the paranoia of 911, and the hubris of relatively easy victories in Kosovo, Kuwait and Afganistan, probably heavily colored the decisions of the President and the Senators of both parties. There are plenty of retroactive geniuses; but if we had not attacked and Saddam reinstated his weapons programs there would have been an equal number of retroactive prophets.

History converts randomness and uncertainty into inevitability.

print