I think this editorial is spot on.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03102007/postopinion/editorials/what_hillary_left_out_editorials_.htm
WHAT HILLARY LEFT OUT
March 10, 2007 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton presumed the other day to give a think-tank audience a history lesson. But it turns out that the would-be president is herself in need of some tutoring.
Appearing before the Center for American Progress, Clinton quoted extensively from President Franklin Roosevelt's speech to the nation two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
"We are now in this war. We are all in it, all the way. Every man, woman and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our American history," FDR told an anxious nation that had just entered World War II.
Added Clinton: "That was presidential leadership that understood that when American soldiers are in harm's way, we are all at war."
Of course, there was something else Roosevelt understood about war and presidential leadership - as does the current commander-in-chief, George W. Bush: When you find yourself in a war, you fight to win.
As FDR put it in that same speech: "The United States can accept no result save victory, final and complete . . . The sources of international brutality, wherever they exist, must be absolutely and finally broken . . . We're going to fight it with everything we got."
Hillary conveniently chose not to quote from that part of the speech.
Which no doubt explains why, when asked point blank whether she believed America should win the war in Iraq, she hemmed and hawed, refusing to answer directly.
No surprise there - the word "victory" has apparently vanished from the vocabulary of just about every Democrat on Capitol Hill.
That much is obvious from the cut-and-run timetables unveiled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top House Democratic leaders - legislation that might more accurately be labeled the Insurgents Victory Act.
In yet another bid to undercut the president - to say nothing of the generals in the field and the troops they command - Pelosi & Co. propose a measure that would set a strict timetable for the total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, starting as early as four months from now.
Even if the troop surge in Baghdad and Anbar Province succeeds - as initial indications suggest it is doing.
Indeed, Pelosi would set the latest date by which all U.S. troops must leave Iraq as the end of August 2008 - just before the start of the presidential general-election campaign.
Talk about using the war for partisan political purposes.
Bush - showing appropriate presidential leadership - immediately vowed to veto the measure, should it actually pass both houses of Congress.
And with good reason.
Bad enough that the Democrats' proposal would handcuff Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
It would also telegraph to the terrorist insurgency and the warring militias just how long they need to keep inflicting American casualties before a weak-willed congressional majority pulls out.
Say this for Hillary Clinton and the rest of the Democrats - they've decided to stop hiding behind symbolic resolutions. Instead, they've made clear, in no uncertain terms, that for them, victory in Iraq is not an option.
FDR would have been appalled.
Rightly so.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03102007/postopinion/editorials/what_hillary_left_out_editorials_.htm
WHAT HILLARY LEFT OUT
March 10, 2007 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton presumed the other day to give a think-tank audience a history lesson. But it turns out that the would-be president is herself in need of some tutoring.
Appearing before the Center for American Progress, Clinton quoted extensively from President Franklin Roosevelt's speech to the nation two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
"We are now in this war. We are all in it, all the way. Every man, woman and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our American history," FDR told an anxious nation that had just entered World War II.
Added Clinton: "That was presidential leadership that understood that when American soldiers are in harm's way, we are all at war."
Of course, there was something else Roosevelt understood about war and presidential leadership - as does the current commander-in-chief, George W. Bush: When you find yourself in a war, you fight to win.
As FDR put it in that same speech: "The United States can accept no result save victory, final and complete . . . The sources of international brutality, wherever they exist, must be absolutely and finally broken . . . We're going to fight it with everything we got."
Hillary conveniently chose not to quote from that part of the speech.
Which no doubt explains why, when asked point blank whether she believed America should win the war in Iraq, she hemmed and hawed, refusing to answer directly.
No surprise there - the word "victory" has apparently vanished from the vocabulary of just about every Democrat on Capitol Hill.
That much is obvious from the cut-and-run timetables unveiled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top House Democratic leaders - legislation that might more accurately be labeled the Insurgents Victory Act.
In yet another bid to undercut the president - to say nothing of the generals in the field and the troops they command - Pelosi & Co. propose a measure that would set a strict timetable for the total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, starting as early as four months from now.
Even if the troop surge in Baghdad and Anbar Province succeeds - as initial indications suggest it is doing.
Indeed, Pelosi would set the latest date by which all U.S. troops must leave Iraq as the end of August 2008 - just before the start of the presidential general-election campaign.
Talk about using the war for partisan political purposes.
Bush - showing appropriate presidential leadership - immediately vowed to veto the measure, should it actually pass both houses of Congress.
And with good reason.
Bad enough that the Democrats' proposal would handcuff Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
It would also telegraph to the terrorist insurgency and the warring militias just how long they need to keep inflicting American casualties before a weak-willed congressional majority pulls out.
Say this for Hillary Clinton and the rest of the Democrats - they've decided to stop hiding behind symbolic resolutions. Instead, they've made clear, in no uncertain terms, that for them, victory in Iraq is not an option.
FDR would have been appalled.
Rightly so.
:soap:
