Letters to the Editor
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To expand a bit:
"Bush's daily briefings--they were wrong then? I've read that he had intelligence (sounds like I'm punning here) that there was not adequate evidence of WMD's and decided to act pre-emptively anyway."
Nooo. Not wrong. Bush would have received a written briefing but he began his administration by asking for oral briefing as well. The CIA went along with this. That means intelligence "off the record." Former presidents would have gotten the written PDB but would have no way of knowing what Bush was told orally. For instance, Bush's own father would not have known what Bush was told orally unless Bush decided to reveal it to him.
I believe that that was one way in which intelligence began to be held and secreted even from some of those people who should have been involved in those decisions. Powell for instance. Condi Rice also complained that she was not getting information she should have had to do her job. Read State of Denial by Woodward.
Certain people controlled the information. Rumsfeld. Cheney. The CIA, of course, is secrets within secrets. I believe that Bush intended to go to war with Iraq long before 9/11. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. 9/11 was just the excuse. I believe that the interest of Halliburton, powerful oil interests (Look at the price of oil! My mother owns some of the oil stock Marathon and she has made nothing but profits.), the reaches of neocon philosophy, and Bush's own desire to get the guy who "tried to kill my Daddy" and to prove himself his father's superior drove the war. I don't think Bush cared if the intelligence said Saddam had WMD or not. He was going there! He was just waiting for an excuse.
Former President Clinton would have gotten the on the record (written!) PDB. Who knows what was off the record? These are guys who keep "losing" emails for god's sake. They don't comply with congressional legal demands. Even the Senate Intelligence Committee has trouble finding out what is going on. Right now, the Bush Administration is motivated by a couple of things in my opinion: Keep Americans focused on national security. Keep from being indicted for war crimes. If waterboarding is deemed torture, lots of powerful people could potentially go down.
We haven't even begun to scratch the surface of ugly. Barring Edwards, I lean toward Hillary. Not because I love Hillary. It is because she can be meaner than a junkyard dog and is likely to pry the cover off of ugly if she is so inclined. Only someone like her can do it. Obama can't. He is too unseasoned. He doesn't know where to look for the ugly.
Now the question remains, will Hillary decide to dismantle the Unitary Executive and pry the lid off the ugly underneath? Frankly I hope she is feeling vengeful because we need to expose this stuff. Or will she merely consolidate the considerable power that has accrued to the executive branch?
We have reached the point where niceness and bipartisanship is weakness. Sure it is good to work across the aisle to pass health care or improve education or protect Social Security. However, it doesn't make sense to cooperate with people who will cover up war crimes.
McCain would cooperate. He is a "patriot" and a "good soldier." He would bury the truth for "the good of the nation." These are secrets that should not be buried. We need to know down to every last detail how we became embroiled in Iraq. There needs to be a cost to those who would wage preemptive war so that they cannot cavalierly do it again. Nation building is really encroachment upon the rights of other people to choose their governance. It is an excuse for stealing resources which are not ours. It allows corruption to flourish as bad people rake in profits. It allows arms dealers to prosper upon the death of others. The Bush Administration is the first time that we have had a sort of "legal" arms dealer in the White House. Dick Cheney is a war profiteer. The border between those who wage war legally and those who wage war illegally has become porous.
McCain will be very, very hard to beat. The war machine will fall in behind him. People will see him as the chance to keep their cushy political, financial, and social positions, and to even save their asses. Lots of money will be needed to defeat McCain. Lots of money will flow to McCain.
Waging war is about protecting people with enormous money and power. It has nothing to do with patriotism.
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"How exactly do the Clintonistas plan to motivate Independents and the Apolitical to vote for her over McCain?"
I have no idea how Clinton supporters will persuade the independents to support Clinton. I suspect that the best way to persuade them would be to point out their economic losses under the Bush Administration.
Why do you think Bernake is lowering interest rates so sharply? He is trying desperately to stave off recession. Maybe we could just tell people that if we don't reverse our course we could go hungry in the damn dark without medical care while still fighting the damn war.
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The Perfect World of Faux LIberals
You are niave anonymous 11:13. The war is not Hillary Clinton's war--just like she didn't invent the voter blocks that control this country. She can't count on the vote of pacifists, which is how you portray yourself. I don't hold that against you, in fact I have great respect for you. (I once wrote a book about Gandhi.)
The country has now been held hostage by the right wing for most of the last 50ty years. Isn't that enough? Mostly because most of the boomer generation has coped out. If more morally superior phonies don't compromise for the next election and vote Democratic the rest of us are going to get yet more war, and more war.
I am convinced at this point any of the Dem candidates will do. Even Hillary. Her husband kept us out of war for most of his term in office and when he did go to war it was just. I see no reason why she wouldn't do the same.
If every two bit infraction of faux liberal sentiment is held against her the GOP will triumph. I know for you that doesn't matter. You are above it all--but some of us are so sick of it we don't care about being right--we just care about getting them out of power.