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In a speech today on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq, Barack Obama established a clear contrast with both Hillary Clinton and John McCain on war policy. Speaking in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Obama came out swinging against the Bush administration as well as Clinton and McCain, condemning not only the administration's decision to go to war but also the congressional decision to authorize war which both Clinton and McCain supported. Beyond merely attacking his opponents, however, Obama also laid out a detailed plan for ending the war in Iraq, focusing America's anti-terror efforts on al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and launching bold new diplomatic initiatives aimed at achieving stability in the region and repairing America's relations with the international community.
"There is a security gap in this country," Obama remarked on the poor judgment shown by Bush, McCain, and Clinton in authorizing and waging war in Iraq, "A gap between the rhetoric of those who claim to be tough on national security, and the reality of growing insecurity caused by their decision."
Like John McCain, Hillary Clinton has made much of her "vast experience" and "readiness to serve" as commander-in-chief. Yet, when faced with the choice of an up or down vote on the October 2002 Iraq war resolution, one of the most important U.S. foreign policy decisions in recent history, she dropped the ball and voted for war. While Clinton has repeatedly called her decision "a sincere vote based on the facts and assurances that I had at the time," she has admitted that she cast her vote without even bothering to read the 90-page National Security Estimate (NIE) on Iraq that was made available to her, and which contained authoritative doubts that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. As The Nation observed last year, Clinton's Senate colleague Bob Graham, then chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged Clinton and other Senate Democrats to read the NIE. Graham, who did take the time to read the NIE, voted against the Iraq war resolution as did 146 other congressional Democrats, seven Republicans, and two independents including senators Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, Patrick Leahy, Carl Levin, Jack Reed, Russ Feingold, and Lincoln Chafee. Barack Obama, then an Illinois state legislator, also spoke out against the authorization for war. Clearly, there were dissenting opinions on the authorization for war of which Clinton was aware, not only in Congress and across the United States but also from America's friends and allies around the world. Had she even bothered to read the NIE she might have voted differently, as others did. This does not speak well either of her vast experience or her readiness to serve.
On the question, for Democrats, of who between himself and Clinton provides a better, clearer contrast to the failed policies of Bush and McCain, Obama left no doubt: "The way to win a debate with John McCain is not to talk, and act, and vote like him on national security, because then we all lose," Obama declared, "The way to win that debate and to keep America safe is to offer a clear contrast, and that's what I will do."
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
