A caution about Clinton

Robert Scheer is one of my favorite political writers. He has been a little woozy on the Presidential campaign, praising alleged "moderate" Republican Chuck Haegel and the darling of the white-supremacist set Ron Paul. But he does have a couple good points about Obama, Clinton and the War 01/29/08 Truthdig.com:

Kennedy was a rare sane voice among the Democrats in strongly opposing the Iraq war, and it is no small tribute when he states: "We know the record of Barack Obama. There is the courage he showed when so many others were silent or simply went along. From the beginning, he opposed the war in Iraq. And let no one deny that truth."

But that is precisely the truth that Sen. Hillary Clinton has shamelessly sought to obscure. Her supporters have accepted Clinton’s refusal to repudiate her vote to authorize the war, an ignominious moment she shares with other Democrats, including presidential candidate John Edwards, who at least has made a point of regretting it. It was a vote that has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, 3,940 U.S. service members - five more on Monday - and a debt in the trillions of dollars that will prevent the funding of needed domestic programs that Clinton claims to support. And it doesn’t end with Iraq. Clinton has been equally hawkish toward Iran and, in a Margaret Thatcher-like moment, even attacked Obama for ruling out the use of nuclear weapons against Osama bin Laden. (my emphasis)

But Scheer's presentation is lacking, as well. Both Clinton and Edwards were wrong to vote for that October 2002 war resolution. But that war resolution did not authorize the war that Cheney and Bush launched in March 2003. They did not meet either the two conditions which that resolution placed on the authorization. Launching that war in direct violation of the 2002 Congressional resolution should be considered an impeachable offensive in itself.

And even though Clinton has for whatever reason refused to use the word "regret" about it, she has said very clearly that she would not vote for that resolution knowing what she knows today. That sure sounds like a repudiation to me. And she has been clear about committing to get US troops out of the Iraq War, though her plan is not entirely adequate to that goal in my view. I wish our left-leaning pundits would be more careful with the facts than I would say Scheer is being here. Even the best writers slip up now and then.

Tags: barack obama, hillary clinton, iraq war, robert scheer