Dems Blamed For Iraq...And It's Their Own Fault

Dems Blamed For Iraq...And It's Their Own Fault

by MJ Rosenberg

A major distortion in American politics is that the media systematically ignores those of us with a deep critique of domestic and foreign policy, and hence frames the issues to make it sound as though gutless Democratic "centrists" are actually the extreme left. But then when we watch the policies of these faux lefties, as we are supposed to think of Obama, it turns out that their worldviews are hard to distinguish from the neo-cons. Obama won support from many in 2008 primaries by contrasting his opposition to the war in Iraq to Hillary Clinton's support for it, then went on to continue the war for four more years without ever challenging the fundamentals of the war or bringing to justice those who had committed war crimes. His speech heralded a week and a half ago to the military said not to rely on military interventions excessively, yet without criteria for what would count as excessive, so no wonder he has created no counter-view to that of the neo-cons whose desire to re-credit American military interventions is given credibility every time Obama threatens the possibility of military interventions (in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, etc.).

I'll leave to a later discussion our analysis of why the crazies in the world seem to be winning except to say that one important part of it is that the best lack passionate intensity (yeah, Yeats) and can't seem to articulate what they are really for. And when you look at their actions, what they really seem to be "for" is simply more of global capitalism--and that is recipe for the triumph of extremism (see my analysis of that in my 2006 national best seller The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right). M.J. Rosenberg is certainly on the right path here--read his article.--Rabbi Michael Lerner

MJ Rosenberg
Iraq Horrors And Who Is To Blame?

I've been listening to BBC live reports from Iraq and it is heart-breaking. Young people are calling in from Baghdad and telling of their terror at the possible arrival of forces from ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), Sunni fanatics who make the Taliban and Al Qaeda look civilized. (One thing Judaism, Islam. Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity have in common is that the most monstrous people adhering to each are invariably religious fanatics who distort the creed and use it as a pretext for hate, conquest and/or killing.)

I don't know what the United States should do about Iraq although, God knows, we are responsible for the catastrophe. It was the U.S. invasion, followed by the installation of the current corrupt and sectarian (Shi'ite) government that laid the groundwork for what may be the establishment of a terrorist regime in much of Iraq, along with the final fragmenting of the country. Add to that that the U.S. is now in a position where it is hoping that Iran will come in and take some control, or at least stop the violence. (Hopefully, our need for Iran's help in Iraq will advance U.S.-Iranian negotiations to move beyond the nuclear issue toward normalization.)

We can thank the Bush administration and the neocons for all of this. True, craven Democrats also voted to authorize the war but, if the guy who won the 2000 U.S. presidential election had actually been sworn in, there would have been no war to authorize. Saddam Hussein didn't try to kill Al Gore's father! Nor would Cheney, Perle, Feith, Rice, Rusmsfeld, Abrams,or Wolfowitz have been serving (themselves) in a Gore administration.

Iraq is a Republican and neocon war, abetted by a few liberals who always fear taking any stand that might necessitate estrangement from friends or colleagues.

Unfortunately, President Obama has refused, right from the beginning to lay the blame for this war (or the economic collapse either) on the people responsible for them. Apparently he thought (and Hillary Clinton still does) that not naming names will appease the Republicans and make them less obstreperous and more reasonable. That is why there were no hearings in Congress in 2009 (then controlled by Democrats) on 9/11, or who lied us into Iraq, or the economic collapse. Democrats (except for Henry Waxman, Carl Levin, and Elizabeth Warren) just don't believe in holding the other side (or themselves, for that matter) accountable for anything.

The result is that Republicans actually get away with blaming Obama for Iraq, despite his being a state senator at the time Bush began the war and the fact that he publicly opposed it. That is why John McCain, who favors bloodshed as the solution to every conflict, could say yesterday that everything in Iraq was Obama's fault and that he should "fire everyone on his national security team."

Of course, the administration didn't respond because it never responds--except defensively. It should have gone on the offense against the right on January 20, 2009 and stayed there. But it didn't. As a result, as many Americans think Obama is as responsible for Iraq and the economic slump as Republicans. This is sick. Rahm Emanuel famously said that politicians should never let a good disaster go to waste, but the administration did as did Congressional Democrats. Contrast Obama with FDR who used the memory of Herbert Hoover so effectively that JFK was still lambasting Hoover successfully in 1960.

I do not admire the Tea Party, not at all. They are gun nuts and bigots and people who worship the almighty dollar over every human value. But I do admire the fact that they fight. I'd love to see a Democratic version of the Tea Party go after, say, Chuck Schumer in a primary (tool of the banks, Wall Street and the neocons). And not just Schumer, but every one of those Democrats who, just like Eric Cantor, value staying in office and sucking up to rich donors over any principle.

Imagine a Democratic party that would fight back, that would tell John McCain that he, of all people, has no right to criticize Obama on Iraq, and that would remind every Republican that the last Republican president destroyed the economy as part of his effort to hand over the budget surplus to his friends. And that 4500 Americans were killed for nothing in the Bush-Cheney neocon war of choice.

Yes, Republicans are terrible. But Democrats are just wimps which is almost as bad.

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