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Candidate demonstrates vision is always 20-20 in hindsight
(by Luigi Luciano - June 28, 2007)
With the election little more than a year out it is very interesting to note how potential candidates address the issues. They seem to use the advantage of hindsight when talking about what is wrong in this country and with the war. Over the next year as we approach the election date, I am going to try and profile some of the candidates, Republicans as well as Democrats, to see how their rhetoric stands up to scrutiny.
This past week Hillary Clinton for the first time since she voted to authorize the Iraq war three years ago is now saying that vote was a mistake. This is an apparent move to appease the growing dissatisfaction with her position among the Democratic Party’s left-wing base.
“If Congress had been asked [to authorize the war], based on what we know now, we never would have agreed,” Clinton said.
Yet look at what Hillary has said over the years:
“Every nation has to either be with us, or against us. Those who harbor terrorists, or who finance them, are going to pay a price.”
Hillary Clinton, September 13, 2001
“In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members…
It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons.”
Hillary Clinton Addressing the U.S. Senate October 10, 2001
“There is a very easy way to prevent anyone from being put into harm’s way, that is for Saddam Hussein to disarm. And I have absolutely no belief that he will. I have to say that this is something I’ve followed for more than a decade. If he were serious about disarming, he would have been much more forthcoming. . . . I ended up voting for the resolution after carefully reviewing the information, intelligence that I had available, talking with people whose opinions I trusted, trying to discount the political or other factors that I didn’t believe should be in any way part of this decision.”
Hillary addresses Code Pink, March 7, 2003.
“We must stay the course in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and asked for more troops to finish the job.”
“We have to exert all of our efforts militarily”
November 29, 2003 Hilary visits the troops In Iraq and Afghanistan
Citing “assurances they gave that they would first seek to resolve the issue of weapons of mass destruction peacefully through United Nations sponsored inspections,” Clinton lamented: “Their assurances turned out to be empty ones.”
In fact, “the Administration refused repeated requests from the U.N. inspectors to finish their work,” she complained.
The former first lady charged that “the Bush Administration short-circuited the U.N. inspectors - the last line of defense against the possibility that our intelligence was false.”
By describing the White House’s WMD evidence as not merely wrong, but false, Mrs. Clinton stopped just short of saying she was lied to.
The above statements make me curious. Looking at her quotes from the past stating “I have to say that this is something I’ve followed for more than a decade. If he were serious about disarming, he would have been much more forthcoming. . . . I ended up voting for the resolution after carefully reviewing the information, intelligence that I had available, talking with people whose opinions I trusted, trying to discount the political or other factors that I didn’t believe should be in any way part of this decision.”
If this was true then how can she blame President Bush for something that she says she has been following for over 10 years? That would mean she was following it from when her husband was in office long before the President. She goes on to say she talked with people she trusted and discounted political factors in her decision to vote for the war.
She also insisted that by constantly criticizing of the Commander-in-Chief in a time of war, she wasn’t emboldening America’s enemies, explaining:
“Criticism of this Administration’s policies should not in any way be confused with softness against terrorists, inadequate support for democracy or lack of patriotism.”
But constantly criticizes the President.
Now in a new twist Sen. Hillary Clinton is asking her fellow senators to sign on to her and Sen. Robert Byrd’s plan for an Iraq war vote do-over.
In a letter to all 98 other senators provided to the Daily News last week, Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Byrd (D-W.Va.) say Congress should haul President Bush back for a new war vote when the Senate debates the 2008 military spending bill in the next few weeks.
The letter, sent Friday, argues that the 2002 vote for the war, which Clinton backed, is hopelessly out of date.
“As the President himself said earlier this year, ‘The fight we are in is not the fight we entered,’” they wrote. “We completely agree, and believe it is time for Congress to address the situation.”
OK if we could all only go back in time to change things I would be thrilled. There are some things in my life if I could “do-over” as the Senator refers to it would be great. But what the Senator does not realize is that you can take back anything you want it still doesn’t not change the present situation. Is this is the sign of a good leader? If things are going well you support it the minute something goes wrong or the poll numbers show you are not doing well change your position. What else will she run on? Is the whole campaign going to be on the war in Iraq? I want to be safe here at home which has to do lot with the war over there. I need some solid information from all the candidates on what they will do to keep my family safe. Not just back peddling to get the votes.
Over the next months I will throw in other articles about other candidates. This one just had to be told because of the issue of the do-over vote she is calling for. Listening to her remark about a do over reminded me of the bratty kid who lost a rock, paper scissor contest and yell do-over!
If life were only as simple as her thinking she might have gotten my vote.
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