Stoopid Stuff

What Would Hillary Do?

It's time to clarify a position on Hillary Clinton and her candidacy. Yes, Hillary, like many other Senators who lacked political, if not personal courage, voted to authorize the use of military force against Iraq. And, of course, history is being revised to something along the lines of "sure, we gave him the authority, but we didn't know he'd abuse it so badly".

First, my biggest problem with this is actually a simple constitutional matter. The constitution places on the legislative branch the power to declare war. The framers did that for a specific reason. They did not want to provide the executive branch with monarchal powers. They wanted to make certain that if America went to war, it was in America's interest to do so, not just in the interest of certain individuals. So to me, each and every congressman and woman, and each and every Senator who voted to abdicate their constitutional responsibilities that week in October 2002 irrevocably violated their oath of office and should be forced to resign.

Ok, I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen, so let's move on.

So now, everywhere Hillary goes, she gets pounded for her vote on the AUMF. People keep saying she has to say it was a mistake. Other people keep saying this is being driven by the extreme left wing of the party. And I have been very vocally critical of Hillary on matters of war and peace. But I honestly don't care if she says it was a mistake, if she believes it was a mistake, or if she has political consultants telling her to ride this out, it will be so much worse if she says the "M" word.

I don't need Hillary to do an act of contrition. I need Hillary to ACT. In her speeches and interviews she seems all too ready to employ the American military in most any given situation. In this area I see awfully little daylight between her and GW Bush. Now sure, she's certainly got to make people realize that even if she is a woman, she's tough enough to make the hard decisions the presidency will require of her. And if a real situation actually did require the US to act militarily, I would want a president that could make that decision. But as a people we've been horribly victimized by a political leadership that decided to make war when it was NOT necessary, to accept the costs in lives and treasure and world opinion for nothing other than personal gain and ego. So forgive me if I'm a little suspiscious.

I don't care if she never admits the vote was a mistake. And I appreciate the strength of her verbal attacks on the architects of that futile debacle. But come on. Hillary Clinton is in a position of great power - she is a United States Senator, one of only 100 in the country. I need to see her taking strong, decisive action to end the war and bring the American troops home promptly. I don't need to see her voting to disapprove of the escalation. I need to see her voting to cut off funds, cap troop levels, end combat operations and redeploy the Americans out of Iraq.

No, she doesn't have to admit the vote was a mistake. And she already acknowledges that the war was a mistake. So now I just need to see her doing something concrete to rectify that mistake. If she continues to talk while people are bleeding, she will lose. If she takes real action, she may not win, but she will at least be on the right side...

posted by mikey @ 1:48 PM