Why the Democrats Won’t Save Us
By Joshua Frank, BrickBurner.org, 2/6/07
Over the past weekend Hillary
Clinton pledged to end the war in Iraq if she is elected. “If we in
Congress don’t end this war before January 2009, as president, I will,”
she told a large crowd at the Democratic National Committee’s winter
convention in Washington.
It was the first time since announcing her candidacy that Hillary
acknowledged the growing movement against the war when discussing Iraq,
which faced its bloodiest period since the invasion almost four years
ago with over 1,000 reported deaths in the last seven days alone. Also
in attendance at the DNC meeting were other presidential hopefuls,
including John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama, who both attempted to
paint themselves as the best antiwar candidate in the hunt for the
White House.
The top candidates” tepid words on Iraq were a sign of what’s to
come over the next year and a half as their rhetorical talents are
turned on high. Despite Obama’s reassurance that he did not support
the war from the beginning, along with Edwards” claims that he’s had a
change of heart on his past pro-war votes — neither candidate
distinguished their position from the Bush administration when it came
to the looming Iran confrontation.
In fact two weeks earlier, while visiting Israel, Edwards laid out his position on Iran quite succinctly:
“Let me be clear: Under no circumstances can Iran be allowed to have
nuclear weapons ” The vast majority of people are concerned about what
is going on in Iraq. This will make the American people reticent toward
going for Iran. But I think the American people are smart if they are
told the truth, and if they trust their president. So Americans can be
educated to come along with what needs to be done with Iran.”
Hillary Clinton pushed virtually the same bitter line while
addressing the annual AIPAC convention held in New York City last week.
“U.S. policy must be clear and unequivocal: We cannot, we should not,
we must not permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons,” Clinton
told the crowd of Israel supporters. “In dealing with this threat …
no option can be taken off the table.”
Barack Obama has also been upfront about how he would deal with
Iran, arguing that he would not rule out the use of force and supports
surgical strikes of alleged nuclear sites in the country if diplomacy
(read: coercion) fails. To put it bluntly, none of the front running
Democrats are opposed to Bush’s dubious “war on terror” or his bullying
of Iran. They support his aggression in principle but simply believe a
Democratic presidency could handle the job more astutely. All put
Israel first and none are going to fundamentally alter U.S. foreign
policy in the Middle East.
Times like these require bravery. They require a fight. A fight
against immoral and illegal policies. A fight against tyranny. A fight
for freedom. Freedom from hatred. Freedom from occupation. Americans
and the people of the Middle East deserve better than Hillary Clinton,
John Edwards and Barack Obama. They deserve to live their lives without
the threat of warfare and bloodshed. They deserve to live without fear.