Blogs > HILLARY lEARNED NOTHING FROM PAST MISTAKES

Jan 13, 2008

HILLARY lEARNED NOTHING FROM PAST MISTAKES



Everything you need to know about the way Hillary Clinton will govern can be found in the following exchange:

MR. RUSSERT: If General Petraeus says,"Senator, in September you called the surge the suspension of belief. It has worked, and you know it's worked"--let me finish--"you can see on the ground. I'm saying to you, Senator, or president-elect Clinton, don't destroy Iraq. It's working, the surge is working. Keep troops there just a few more months to get this reconciliation complete."

SEN. CLINTON: Tim, I'm going to go back to what the whole point of the surge was, and the testimony that we heard last fall. The point of the surge was to push the Iraqi government to make these tough choices. Now, if we put in 30,000 of our finest young men and women, who are going to go after the bad guys and quell violence in certain parts of Iraq, there's no doubt that can be done. The partnerships that have been created by the tribal sheiks in Anbar province and elsewhere gave us an extra advantage. But that doesn't in any way undermine the basic reality. The point of the surge was to quickly move the Iraqi government and Iraqi people. That is only now beginning to happen, and I believe in large measure because the Iraqi government, they watch us, they listen to us. I know very well that they follow everything that I say. And my commitment to begin withdrawing our troops in January of 2009 is a big factor, as it is with Senator Obama, Senator Edwards, those of us on the Democratic side. It is a big factor in pushing the Iraqi government to finally do what they should have been doing all along.

She takes credit for American success achieved despite her opposition and plans to wrangle defeat from the jaws of victory if elected president. Yes, Al Qaeda is watching and she has just informed them that she had learned nothing from Somalia where she insisted Bill withdraw precipitously to force Somalis and the UN to take responsibility.

Tim Russert would never question her about her role in Somalia. But in her book For Love of Politics Sally Bedell Smith reports that it was Hillary who overrided Bill's concerns that his decision to withdraw all American troops within 6 months would send the wrong message to US enemies. He did not know he emboldened Bin Laden but he had enough sense to assume he would embolden someone. He did. It is disconcerting to realize that Hillary has learned nothing from the experience and that neither have those who do not question her current"promise" to Bin Laden and company that if they behave until she (or another fellow democrat) is elected president, they can look forward to turning Iraq of another Somalia.

In other words, terrorists can look forward to the return of the good old nineties when states could support anti-American terror with impunity. The worse that could happen to them is having a couple of long range missile lobbed at their empty tents or medicine factories.



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