Nearly $1 BILLION dollars spent EACH DAY in Iraq...tell me again why IWR isn't an issue?

[jackstraw45]

Today...tomorrow...the next day...nearly a BILLION dollars a day are being spent on Iraq (according to a November 2007 Washington Post article). Exxon-Mobil just reported RECORD profits AGAIN. Our troops are still dying and injured, schools are closing, bridges failing...

Yet some on DU are claiming that votes authorizing this mess don't matter and are in the past. Oh, really?

[Oregone]

1. Apologizing isn't enough. Its a litmus test to me.

I guess Im one of the few that doesn't have amnesia about it.

I was furious about it months before it happened. I was reading everything, from foreign press, to UNSCOM reports, to whatever intelligence I could get my hands on. The case was clear, as Ritter suggested. It was a damn farce.

They signed off on something that any well-informed citizen KNEW was bullshit and KNEW would directly cause a war. Its BS to revise history and say it was something else.

[FreakinDJ]

6. Hey me too !!!

We were some of the VERY VERY few who knew Powell was lying to the UN and the whole world.

DU was great back then. Powell's speach was debunked in real time

[Egnever]

13. DU was great back then

Couldn't agree more. It took literally minutes for each lie uttered to be exposed for what it was back then.

Remember the remote control drones !

LOL i'll never forget hearing about them then seeing the pictures of them here.

The IWR vote was a farce and I also will never forgive any of them that voted for it. Luckily they are becoming fewer and fewer.

[Adelante]

2. Thank you, thank you

Even as an economy issue, which is now #1, it's the war, stupid.

[FreakinDJ]

3. First off it's 1/4 billion per day - as if that matters

The USA is broke. Our system of Representation is equally broke. We allowed them to break the FCC act and that should be of equal importance to the Iraq War because the dis-information they spewed forth (propaganda - such an ugly word) is partly responcible (50% at least) for allowing america to be drawn into the war.

[jackstraw45]

9. In Sept. 2007, Washington Post quoted $720 million a day...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092102074.html

"CHICAGO, Sept. 21 -- The money spent on one day of the Iraq war could buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity, according to the American Friends Service Committee, which displayed those statistics on large banners in cities nationwide Thursday and Friday.

The war is costing $720 million a day or $500,000 a minute, according to the group's analysis of the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard public finance lecturer Linda J. Bilmes.

The estimates made by the group, which opposes the conflict, include not only the immediate costs of war but also ongoing factors such as long-term health care for veterans, interest on debt and replacement of military hardware."

[sandnsea]

4. It's not the damn vote, it's THE WAR

The IWR vote is the least of Hillary's problems on the Iraq War. If you believe anything she says after her record, then you're a lot more trusting person than I am.

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.

Tonight, the President gave Saddam Hussein one last chance to avoid war, and the world hopes that Saddam Hussein will finally hear this ultimatum, understand the severity of those words, and act accordingly. While we wish there were more international support for the effort to disarm Saddam Hussein, at this critical juncture it is important for all of us to come together in support of our troops and pray that, if war does occur, this mission is accomplished swiftly and decisively with minimum loss of life and civilian casualties.
March 17 2003 (Invasion)
We are in a two-front war. We are offense in Iraq and we have to finish the job
March 19 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

I am both a little optimistic and a little pessimistic, but what I'm trying to do is be realistic about where we are and what we need to be successful. We have no option but to stay involved and committed.
Dec 15, 2003 Speech to CFR

"The consensus was the same, from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration," she said. "It was the same intelligence belief that our allies and friends around the world shared.
"But I think that in the case of the administration, they really believed it. They really thought they were right, but they didn't let enough sunlight into their thinking process to really have the kind of debate that needs to take place when a serious decision occurs like that." (They believed it, but her people didn't??)
April 2004 Larry King

It's regrettable that the security needs have increased so much. On the other hand, I think you can look at the country as a whole and see that there are many parts of Iraq that are functioning quite well," Clinton said.
It is time for the President to stop serving up platitudes and present us with a plan for finishing this war with success and honor – not a rigid timetable that terrorists can exploit, but a public plan for winning and concluding the war.
Nov 2005 Letter To Constituents

nor do I think it is smart strategy to set a date certain.
June 2006 TBA

"Now it's time to say the redeployment should start in 90 days or the Congress will revoke authorization for this war,"
Feb 2007

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Bush democrats.

Six years ago there were plenty of "democrats" who supported the Bush. And then supported the war in Iraq.

They're still trying to pretend it all didn't happen.

I remember.

[emilyg]

7. Live in the future.

[John Q. Citizen]

10. I try to live in the present. Your post at least explains the fantasy fixations of many

Hill supporters.

[John Q. Citizen]

8. I won't vote for Hillary. Period. She's an imperialistic hawk. n/t

[hulklogan]

11. It is an issue but Senator Clinton was only one of 77 who voted for it

There are 76 other Senators and 290-something Representatives who also voted for the IWR, and they get a free pass if we hold Senator Clinton singularly responsible.

[shraby]

12. Not only that, but I read some time ago that

Iraqis have free medical care.

[agdlp]

14. So why did Obama vote repeatedly for funding the war ?

http://votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9490

[Egnever]

15. To support the troops

Once we were in, we were going to have some responsibility to try to make it work as best we can," the presidential candidate said. "More importantly, you make sure the troops are supported. I don't think there's any contradiction there whatsoever. We should not get in; once we were in, we had to make the best of a bad situation."