Scott Ritter: See Hillary Run (from Her Husband's Past on Iraq)

[babylonsister]

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/48729/

See Hillary Run (from Her Husband's Past on Iraq)

By Scott Ritter, AlterNet. Posted March 3, 2007.

It's not enough for Hillary Clinton to apologize for her Iraq vote in 2002: She was witness to years of President Bill Clinton's deception and lying about Saddam Husseins's weapons programs to justify attacks on Iraq.


Senator Hillary Clinton wants to become President Hillary Clinton. "I'm in, and I'm in to win," she said, announcing her plans to run for the Democratic nomination for the 2008 Presidential election.

Let there be no doubt that Hillary Clinton is about as slippery a species of politician that exists, one who has demonstrated an ability to morph facts into a nebulous blob which blurs the record and distorts the truth. While she has demonstrated this less than flattering ability on a number of issues, nowhere is it so blatant as when dealing with the issue of the ongoing war in Iraq and Hillary Clinton's vote in favor of this war.

This issue won't be resolved even if Hillary Clinton apologizes for her Iraq vote, as other politicians have done, blaming their decision on faulty intelligence on Iraq's WMD capabilities. This is because, like many other Washington politicians at the time, including those now running for president, she had been witness to lies about Iraq's weapons programs to justify attacks on that country by her husband President Bill Clinton and his administration.

"While there is no perfect approach to this thorny dilemma, and while people of good faith and high intelligence can reach diametrically opposed conclusions, I believe the best course is to go to the UN for a strong resolution that scraps the 1998 restrictions on inspections and calls for complete, unlimited inspections with cooperation expected and demanded from Iraq," Senator Clinton said at the time of her vote, in a carefully crafted speech designed to demonstrate her range of knowledge and ability to consider all options. "I know that the Administration wants more, including an explicit authorization to use force, but we may not be able to secure that now, perhaps even later. But if we get a clear requirement for unfettered inspections, I believe the authority to use force to enforce that mandate is inherent in the original 1991 UN resolution, as President Clinton recognized when he launched Operation Desert Fox in 1998."

Hillary would have done well to leave out that last part, the one where her husband, the former President of the United States, used military force as part of a 72-hour bombing campaign ostensibly deemed as a punitive strike in defense of disarmament, but in actuality proved to be a blatant attempt at regime change which used the hyped-up threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction as an excuse for action. Sound familiar? While many Americans today condemn the Bush administration for misleading them with false claims of unsubstantiated threats which resulted in the ongoing debacle we face today in Iraq (count Hillary among this crowd), few have reflected back on the day when the man from Hope, Arkansas sat in the Oval Office and initiated the policies of economic sanctions-based containment and regime change which President Bush later brought to fruition when he ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.


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[Demeter]

1. I'm Already Tired of Hillary and It's March 2007

Maybe if there were some points of pride, instead of perpetual petulance....

[BeyondGeography]

2. What about her own past?

From her Senate speech in October of 2002:

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members, though there is apparently no evidence of his involvement in the terrible events of September 11, 2001."

Some might think those last few words are enough for butt coverage on the long-since discredited argument that Saddam had links to al Qaeda. Others might think it was a classic case of Clintonian equivocation, inserted just in case the whole case for war fell apart. Count me in the latter group.

[lyonn]

3. My Hillary opinion.....

Had she voted against the IWR she would be a sure win for Pres. She blew it.

Did Bill Clinton want war with Iraq? Didn't appear so to me at that time. He wanted economic sanctions to be ongoing and there was pressure to make Saddam allow the inspectors back in the country without restrictions. Someone correct me on this if I am way off base. Also, economic sanctions were considered by many to be too harsh for the Iraqi people. Could it be that Bill knew the ramifications of actually removing Saddam and leaving the country wide open to what is occuring now? If so, why does Hillary not get straight with us and explain? That is the problem with Hillary. She had my vote until the IWR and no further explainations except to say she would have done it different.

[terisan]

4. I voted for Kerry & Edwards even though I thought they should not have

voted for the Iraq War Resolution. Did

Sen. Kerry oppose Pres. Clinton's actions in Iraq at the time?

Is Sen Clinton held to a higher standard?

I respect Scott Ritter. He was consistently right about Iraq and was personally attacked by those who wanted war. However I am bothered by the emotional tone of the language he uses here about Senator Clinton. I think he would not use the second paragraph about a male politician.

I would like to hear him make an "I" statement there and lay out facts, not suggestions or allusions. Tell us when, and how she has distorted on the other issues.

What is her current stated position on ending the Iraq war? Is it slippery and nebulous?