At the otherwise civilized NPR debate, some of her rivals gave Hillary Clinton grief for doing exactly what she should have done — vote for the resolution aimed at isolating Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
This, of course, is in keeping with the fad of the last couple of days, in which everyone projects what they wish the facts to be upon the rather mixed National Intelligence Estimate — you know, the one that said Iran stopped working toward a nuke over here, but over there it kept busy enriching uranium, putting it on track to have enough for a Bomb sometime between 2010 and 2015. (The Israelis, meanwhile, are more pessimistic than their friends over here.)
I’m still waiting for a reason why we should stop doing what we’ve been doing — working with France to keep the pressure on Iran to get it to abandon its nuclear ambitions — but I haven’t heard one yet.
This issue illustrates the flip side of the contradictory role that Mrs. Clinton plays in this election. She’s the embodiment of the hopes of people who want to continue the bloody partisan wars of the past 15 years, and Barack Obama offers the hopeful alternative to that.
Meanwhile, when it comes to actual policy — particularly foreign policy, which is the biggie when you’re talking chief executive in our system — she comes closer than Obama to the kind of Third Way approach once exemplified by her husband, Joe Lieberman, Tony Blair and others. (Example: The way she infuriated some in the base by her refusal to say she regrets her Iraq vote — that is the proper response for someone who is serious about occupying the White House.)
Anyway, when it comes to her Iran vote: You go, Hillary. Pay no attention to those boys.
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I’ll probably vote for Senator Clinton but there is reason to be concerned with this vote. It appears to strengthen the president’s hand in dealing with the Iranians militarily. An honest and level-headed president should have a strong hand in this area but definitely not the idiot who’s in charge now. Clinton’s vote would have been a no-brainer if her husband was in charge. But with the dangerous clown currently occupying the White House the last thing we need if for him to have any excuses to once again misuse our military.
The Revolutionary Guard is what it is, bud, regardless of who happens to be president of the United States at a given time.
Hey, wait a minute, Brad. Yes, they can be dangerous. But, Mr. Bush’s argument has been that Iran is in the process of developing a nuclear weapon NOW. It’s not a case of the revolutionary guard is bad and they might decide to go back and try to develop a bomb again. Mr. Bush has flat out told the leader of Iran that he (Mr. Bush) doesn’t believe him. He has threatened a military solution in response to Iran’s development of nuclear power, and he has done his best to increase the fear level in this country. And now we find out that Mr. Bush has known better about Iran’s current attempts to develop a bomb for the last several months. Now he is threatening the possibility of more war, anyway. Mr. Bush is either a liar at this point, or so inly blind that he can’t tell truth from falsehood. Frankly, I am terrified of what this president might do to further destroy this country. For that reason, I find that anything that gives him grounds for aggression against any country is a very poor idea.
Sorry Brad, but you are dead-on wrong on this one. Bush has stridently, and without equivocation, stated that Iran is working toward a nuclear weapon. The latest intelligence report clearly suggests this situation is far more complicated than that. In fact, the main finding in this report is that Iran stopped working on a nuclear device back in 2003. To grant greater power to a man that has clearly lied to us twice about the threat from another country is reckless. The best we can hope for is to restraint this dangerous president as much as we can for the next 13 months and then deal with the Iranians with a new president. Otherwise a few more thousand young Americans might die needlessly. Given the latest intelligence report the situation does not appear so urgent that we can’t simply wait it out for 13 months. Right now I fear Bush more than the Iranians.
Hillary got less than 5% of the vote in the union straw polls in Iowa last week.
The phony “news” about Hillary leading just shows how corrupt the media is. She is the biggest purchaser of advertising, so faux journalism pumps her up.