Chris Bowers thinks Hillary still believes in the Iraq mission

[swag]

over there at OpenLeft. That might be a fair reading of her statement on the 4,000th troop death:

"In the last five years, our soldiers have done everything we asked of them and more. They were asked to remove Saddam Hussein from power and bring him to justice and they did. They were asked to give the Iraqi people the opportunity for free and fair elections and they did. They were asked to give the Iraqi government the space and time for political reconciliation, and they did. So for every American soldier who has made the ultimate sacrifice for this mission, we should imagine carved in stone: 'They gave their life for the greatest gift one can give to a fellow human being, the gift of freedom."

[bigtree]

1. sure if you lie about her position on Iraq, you can attribute anything to Hillary Clinton

Making shit up is fun.

[Renew Deal]

3. What part is made up?

:shrug:

[mattclearing]

4. You honestly believe Hillary is going to pull out?

That seems naive to me. I don't really have any illusions about any of the remaining presidential candidates willingness or ability to end the war at this point. There are some things the president can't change.

[Renew Deal]

2. Yes, we gave them freedom from life.

Over 100,000 liberated and counting. :puke:

[MBS]

5. I just heard snippets of her 2002 IWR speech on NPR this morning,

-- much more gung-ho than, say, Kerry's (whose agony, pain, foreboding and general distress over the Iraq issue was evident in every word of his October 2002 speech on the Senate floor, not to mention every thing he's done and said since that time to get us out and to prevent further escapades in, say, Iran) I have to say that I think that this is indeed a pretty fair reading of her gut feelings on this.

[tularetom]

6. While I have sympathy for those who've lost loved ones in this clusterfuck

Just who the fuck did their deaths bring freedom to? If she really believes that she has absolutely no credibility with the overwhelming majority of the Amewrican people and doesn't deserve to be elected dog catcher of Bumfuck arkansas let alone president. I'm beginning to believe that the only Dems who actually believe all the right wing crap thrown at the clintons during the 90's are the clintons themselves.

[madrchsod]

7. "They gave their life for the greatest gift

one can give to a fellow human being, the gift of freedom."

did we ask the iraqi people if they wanted our gift of freedom?

did we tell them that the gift of freedom would turn their first world country into a third world country?

did we tell them our gift of freedom that we are never going to leave?

they gave their lives for a lie not the people of iraq freedom

[Texas Hill Country]

8. oh my god... what is she supposed to say... sorry the president was an asshole and sent you to die

for no friggin reason?

[swag]

9. Well, here is part of what Barack Obama said:

"Each death is a tragedy, and we honor every fallen American and send our thoughts and prayers to their families. It is past time to end this war that should never have been waged by bringing our troops home, and finally pushing Iraq's leaders to take responsibility for their future. As we do, we must serve the memory of all who have died as well as they served our country, by providing support for their families, caring for our troops and veterans, and upholding the American values which our fallen heroes exemplified through their service."

[redqueen]

11. He makes it really easy to support him.

[swag]

12. I'm not sure you're being sincere. Sophisticated irony often escapes me.

It hasn't always been easy to support him, like when he aped right-wing talking points about a non-existent "crisis" in Social Security, or when he let Donnie McClurkin emcee his South Carolina fundraiser, but I don't see that I have any choice right now. Hillary Clinton completely lost me during "Commander in Chief Threshold" week.

[redqueen]

13. Sorry... I am sincere.

I leaned Clinton when Edwards first dropped out, and the issues you mention were part of the reason why.

I should have said that the more I watch him deal with issues, the easier it gets to support him. How's that? :)

[swag]

14. That works.

Thanks.

[Hepburn]

15. Well............

........maybe she should have NOT trusted Bush and given up her Constiutional powers to him....and she would NOT have to even contemplate being put in a position where that is pretty much the truth.

Fuck her and her pro war vote. :puke:

[Bryan]

10. I think Bowers is right

In the Los Angeles debate, Sen. Clinton had a line about the necessity of removing Saddam Hussein-that "there were legitimate concerns about what he might do" because he was "a megalomaniac" and "he would not want to compete for attention with Osama bin Laden".

That justification was staggering to me. It seemed to suggest that she thought that Hussein and bin Laden were somehow priorities of equal weight and urgency in 2003; if so, she was, at best, horribly mistaken. I'm hesitant to speculate as to whether she actually knows better and decided to trot that line out anyway, as it would make voting for her in the general an unpleasant concept to stomach.