Cutting through the fog on the Iraq Authorization vote

Ambassador Joseph Wilson has an extremely well-reasoned essay on the the Iraq War and what the experiences of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have to do with it. Ambassador Wilson knows a bit about foreign policy. Taylor Marsh posts it here, but here is a brief excerpt:

Obama's campaign has been built upon his supposed transcendent qualities and intuitive judgment. His foreign policy experience is limited to having lived in Indonesia between the ages of 6 and 10, and having traveled overseas briefly as a college student. He further claims that a speech he gave against the war in Iraq six years ago to extremely liberal supporters in a campaign for state senator in Illinois is sufficient proof of his superior judgment in national security matters and qualifies him to be president and commander-in-chief of U.S. Armed Forces at a time when we are fighting two extraordinarily difficult wars. As with his relationship with Wright, a closer examination is warranted.

In the U.S. Senate, to which he was elected in 2004, a year after the launching of Operation Iraqi Freedom, he has done little to act on his asserted anti-war position, and has said repeatedly that had he been in the Senate at the time of the vote on the authorization for the use of military force he doesn't know how he would have voted. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Europe, with jurisdiction over NATO, he has held not a single oversight meeting because, as he admitted, he was too busy running for president, even though NATO's presence in the Afghanistan war is critical to success in that venture.

One of my biggest concerns with Obama has been just this: while he says he is anti-war, what has he done since getting elected to the Senate? As for Hillary Clinton's vote to give the president authority, Ambassador Wilson explains it clearly:

Obama repeats the incorrect and politically irresponsible mantra that Sen. Hillary Clinton voted for the war and that therefore he is more qualified to be president. Unlike Obama, as the last acting U.S. ambassador to Iraq during the first Gulf War, I was deeply involved in that debate from the beginning.

President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell made it clear publicly and in their representations to Congress that the authorization was not to go to war but rather to give the president the leverage he needed to go to the United Nations to reinvigorate international will to contain and disarm Saddam Hussein, consistent with the resolutions passed at the time of the first Gulf War.

With passage of the resolution, the president did in fact achieve a U.N. consensus, and inspectors returned to Iraq. Hans Blix, the chief U.N. inspector, has said repeatedly that without American leadership there would have been no new inspection regime.

Just to be clear, I'll say it again: If Barack Obama wins the nomination, I will vote for him. But I'll still always think Hillary Clinton would be better.

Stunningly inept, even for George W. Bush

In an astounding display of stupidity and ineptitude, in 2006 President Bush responded to questions about the lack of legal oversight of government contractors such as KBR Haliburton with jokes and laughter.

Somehow I don't think that Jamie Leigh Jones, who was brutally raped by her KBR co-workers, finds any of this funny, Mr. President.



You can read more at The Raw Story.

President Bush at work: Unable to pronounce either "Olmert" or "Mahmoud"

ThinkProgress has video of President Bush making a statement from the MidEast Peace talks in Annapolis. Too bad he stumbles badly on the names of both the major participants from Israel and Palestine. Watch it and wonder. Has he fallen off the wagon again, or do we have a functionally illiterate president? (click on the image to go to the video)

Flashback: In September, a marked-up draft of Bush’s speech to the U.N. was inadvertently released. The draft included “phonetic spellings of some names and countries.” Dana Perino said at the time that it was “offensive” to suggest Bush has a hard time pronouncing certain names:

REPORTER: Does the president have a hard time pronouncing some of these countries’s [sic] name?

PERINO: I think that’s a offensive question. I’m going to just decline to comment on it.

More offensive than mispronouncing the names of two world leaders?

Bush set to open military airspace to ease holiday travel. Is that really such a good idea?

O.K., color me cynical. But how can President Bush in good conscience keep telling us that “we are at war” (“Unfortunately, on too many issues, some in Congress are behaving as if America is not at war,”) and then turn around and announce that one of the ways to ease your Thanksgiving travel nightmare is by opening up the military airspace for use by commercial airlines?

(You may fill in your own thoughts here as to whether or not president Bush actually has a conscience ....)

Well, look for an announcement this afternoon from our dear leader, telling us of his plans. According to ABC News:

the plan involves opening up some military airspace to commercial flights — essentially creating additional highways in the sky.

Now, I empathize with everyone who has to travel by plane this time of year. I'm fortunate enough to have most of my family within driving distance, but I do travel by air enough during the summer tourist season that I have an appreciation for what it must be like this time of year. Really, I do.

But, again, I thought he said we're at war. And when you're at war, you sacrifice things (you know, like certain civil liberties, etc.). And so the act of opening up military airspace to commercial airlines smacks a little like playing to the people, to me. The Republican party is going down the tubes in all aspects of current life. What they need is a good old fashioned feel-good move by the Republican president. (Do I see Karl Rove hovering in the background of this move?)

Oh, but wait. According to the AP:

Congestion is not the only problem for air travelers.

A report made public Wednesday said government investigators smuggled liquid explosives and detonators past airport security, exposing a dangerous hole in the nation's ability to keep these forbidden items off of airplanes.

The investigators learned about the components to make an improvised explosive device and an improvised incendiary device on the Internet and purchased the parts at local stores, said the report by the Government Accountability Office. Investigators were able to purchase the components for the two devices for under $150, and they studied the published guidelines for screening to determine how to conceal the prohibited items as they went through checkpoint security.

At the end of the testing, investigators concluded that terrorists could use publicly available information and a few cheaply available supplies to damage an airplane and threaten passenger safety.

Loud sigh.

Bush handed first veto defeat. Congress takes baby steps, baby steps.

Subhead: Congress grows a spine!

Well, it's a start. For the first time in his seven years as president, Congress today handed President Bush a defeat, overriding his veto of a $23 billion water resources bill. No, it's no Iraq war funding, but it's a start.

From AP:

[It] marked a milestone for a president who spent his first six years with a much friendlier Congress controlled by his Republican Party. Now he confronts a more hostile, Democratic-controlled legislature, and Thursday's vote showed that even many Republicans will defy him on spending matters dear to their political careers.

The bill funds hundreds of Army Corps of Engineers projects, such as dams, sewage plants and beach restoration, that are important to local communities and their representatives. It also includes money for the hurricane-hit Gulf Coast and for Florida Everglades restoration efforts.