Nathan Newman <nathanne at nathannewman.org> wrote:
> Imagine a scenario where 100 Democrats voted Present and the other
> half voted Yes, which was a likely outcome of your strategy. That
> would have really registered overwhelming support for the war.
-As far as I've been able to discern,the Democrats *DO* overwhelmingly -support the incursion into Iraq... Because their constituents' way of -life (The American Way [tm]) absolutely depends on maintaining the -flow of oil and natural gas from the middle east and beyond (C. Asia, Caspian) -There's absolutely NO DIFFERENCE between the two parties in respect -to those geopolitical issues and it's been that way for a long long time.
With the far left mouthing lies of the far right, no wonder the GOP is controlling this country.
Two-thirds of House Democrats, INCLUDING NANCY PELOSI, voted against the Iraq war in 2002. And even many of those who voted for the war, such as Murtha, have turned against it.
But a lot of them buy to a certain extent the Pottery Barn rule, as it's called, "you broke it, you bought it", so having bombed and disrupted Iraq, we hold some responsibility not to exit in a way that leaves the population even worse off. But disagreement over how best to exit is not the same as support for the original war.
AGAIN TO REPEAT-- since folks seem to buy outright lies, two-thirds of Democrats in the House voted AGAINST the war.
Doug argues: -Would you deny that the Dems, as a party, can't figure out their -position on the war?
No, there position on the war is very clear. It was a mistake and shouldn't have happened. Almost every Democratic leader agrees with that position, from John Kerry to Nancy Pelosi to Howard Dean.
There is disagreement on how best to extract the troops now that there is no alternative police authority in the country, since exit now could easily lead to a bloodbath. Trying to minimize that bloodbath is not some gimmick but a pretty legitimate debate.
But disagreements on the best way to end a war is not disagreement that the war itself was a mistake.
Nathan Newman