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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (99380)	2/14/2007 12:26:59 AM
From: SiouxPal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361390

Hillary Has Painted Candidates Into A Corner by John Boy Tue Feb 13 Reading Richard Cohen’s column (The Explanation Hillary Clinton Owes) this morning got me thinking. Cohen is right. I would like to know what lesson she has learned from America’s misadventure in Iraq. And in thinking about it, I want all candidates to answer the same question. Whatever her lesson learned, I doubt that it would be a show stopper for me. I think she, like most other declared and non-declared Democratic candidates for President, would be fine Presidents. In fact, being more of a centralist myself, I rather like her. John Boy's diary :: :: Nonetheless, she has painted herself into a corner. Knowing what she knows now, begs the question what exactly do you know now that has changed your mind. There are a number of reasons that come to mind with varying degrees of reassurance that she has learned the right things. Here is my list of possible errors: The Bush administration does not know how to run a war. This is a show stopper for me. While it is true that Bush is clueless, I do not see how it could have been done right without a long term commitment and the use of the draft to get the hundreds of thousands of peace keepers needed to police Iraq indefinitely. If this is the lesson she learned, it means she doesn’t really understand the limits of American power and she might misuse it in the future. There was no link to Al Qaeda. Again not very satisfying. Anybody who had been paying attention knew Hussein viciously suppressed political dissention including would be terrorists. There were no WMD. A little better, but not much. The inspectors were doing a decent job and had no indication that Hussein really had such weapons in any significant quantity. And certainly no nuclear weapons. That civil war was inevitable. Getting better. Her problem here is what did she think the no fly zones were about? Did she think it was an over reaction? Hussein was the source of much of the tensions in the middle east. Not a great lesson to admit learning. The middle east has always been know to be a very complex multifaceted bed of hatred. Iraq does not have a suitable history of jurisprudence to support minority rights. This is a good one for me. I had not considered the fact that the middle eastern countries have never had such things as juries of your peers or judges who were not religious leaders. That is, law has always been dogmatic in the middle east and does not provide much room for varying viewpoints. And as such, minority rights or human rights are very alien concepts to the public. Personally, I don’t see western style democracies in the middle east in foreseeable future. It will be the tyranny of strong men, kings, religious leaders or the majority until they decide religion has no place in the court room. But I suspect any number of intelligence analysts in the CIA and the State Department would have mentioned this if asked about western style democracies in the middle east. The American public would change it’s mind. This is the one that the zealots jump on. They say it is a bad thing to triangulate. But working the will of the public is job one for our representatives. True, she and other Democrats should have been trying to educate the public on the futility of Bush’s vision. But given that argument for moment went against the antiwar view, following the will of the people is not a bad thing in a democracy. Unfortunately it is not a great thing either. It is what it is, a part of how democracy works. American might does not make right. This is the lesson I want her to have learned. Being strong on defense is not the same as believing we can force our will on people. There are only two reasons two use the military: defense and peace keeping. It is always dicey which is why you want a strong defense. I hope Hillary and the American public have learned this lesson. Hillary may have learned other lessons. She may have leaned a combination of these lessons. But given there are no do-overs, what lesson has she learned? Her refusal to take a strong stand begs the question. What exactly were you mistaken about this war? All wars? The middle east? As I have said I generally like Hillary because of her centralist views. But Cohn is right. If she does not tell us her lessons learned, we will assume the worst – she learned nothing. There are many possibilities, some contradictory, and most unsatisfactory to some or most people. The other candidates have avoided this mine field by apologizing for their vote. But Hillary has painted herself into a corner and there is a growing chorus of people asking "exactly what lesson have you learned?" But the same is true for all candidates. It is not enough to say it was a mistake to have voted for the war. It is not enough to say I told you it was a mistake. All the candidates need to clearly state what they think lead to this disaster and how we will avoid these kinds of mistakes in the future. If you want to be a leader, you should be able to tell us how you will avoid future Iraqs. dailykos.com