Senator Barak Obama has all but declared himself a candidate in the 2008 Presidential race. Good, say I. Let’s hear more. He was opposed to the invasion of Iraq but it’s not clear how high the danger created has risen in his list of of issues; he seems stuck in the “failure is not an option” frame. Ms. Clinton, not yet having officially declared her obvious desire, is still working out the slack-rope walk of opposition/non-opposition to the Crap in Iraq. She hasn’t even regretted her vote to enable the President in his panic aggressive behaviour. John Edwards seems the most serious on issues that matter to me though he’s having trouble getting noticed in the dazzle Obama casts on the newsies.
Meanwhile, lefty Robert Scheer is singing the praises of conservative Chuck Hagel:
Sen. Hagel is a decorated Vietnam War vet who learned the crucial lessons of that Democrat-launched debacle of post-colonial imperialism. Even more important, he has the courage to challenge a president from his own party who so clearly didn’t.
“The speech given last night [Jan. 10] by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam,” Hagel said. “We are projecting ourselves further and deeper into a situation that we cannot win militarily.
“To ask our young men and women to sacrifice their lives to be put in the middle of a civil war is wrong. It’s, first of all, in my opinion, morally wrong. It’s tactically, strategically, militarily wrong,” he added.
If Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, another Democratic darling, has uttered words of such clarifying dissent on the president’s disastrous course, then I haven’t heard them. Instead, too many leading Democratic politicians continue to act as if they fear that if they are forthright in opposing the war, they will appear weak, whether on national security or the protection of Israel, and so ignore the clear, strong voice of the American people that just revived their party’s fortunes.
And, to add to the fun, Patrick Buchanan, so wrong in his xenophobia, is pretty damn right in his view of the war, and weakness.
America is four years into a bloody debacle in Iraq not merely because Bush and Cheney marched us in, or simply because neocon propagandists lied about Saddam’s nuclear program and WMDs, and Iraqi ties to al-Qaida, anthrax attacks and 9-11.
We are there because a Democratic Senate voted to give Bush a blank check for war. Democrats in October 2002 wanted the war vote behind them so they could go home and campaign as pro-war patriots.
I’d say, for Obama or Clinton or anyone else to get our support they should be first in line to sign Walter Jones Joint Resolution, “Concerning the Use of Military Force by the United States Against Iran.”
Under HJR 14, “Absent a national emergency created by attack by Iran, or a demonstrably imminent attack by Iran, upon the United States, its territories, possessions or its armed forces, the president shall consult with Congress, and receive specific authorization pursuant to law from Congress, prior to initiating any use of force on Iran.”
Jones’ resolution further declares, “No provision of law enacted before the date of the enactment of this joint resolution shall be construed to authorize the use of military force by the United States against Iran.”