Yesterday morning on "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos there ran the names of 16 Americans -- some, mere boys -- killed in Iraq last week. Next week he'll run another list of Americans killed this week. So it has gone for nearly five years, with at least another year to go. Less quantifiable is the death of America's reputation and whatever honor she had regained after the needless obscenity of Vietnam.
Just prior to "This Week," in my viewing area, ran "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert. And there sat Hillary Clinton, raising questions about her chief primary opponent's judgment, voting record and "deliberate distorti[ons]." At one point, with respect to one of those distortions that recently led to an utterly inconsequential flap -- I agree with her there -- she said "It is such an unfair and unwarranted attempt to, you know, misinterpret and mischaracterize what I've said."
Hillary, you should be more careful in throwing around words like distortion, misinterpretation and mischaracterization. Because it's such an unfair and unwarranted attempt to, you know, mischaracterize what you've done, which helped lead to the profound consequences mentioned in the first paragraph of this piece.
For there you sat, again, spinning the real "fairy tale" of this campaign: that your vote for the "Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq" was, despite the resolution's title, in actuality merely an authorization for the oxymoronic use of "diplomatic force."
Well, gosh, you continued, we know now that George W. Bush is a reckless, bloodthirsty, jingoistic imbecile, but whoever could have known that back in 2002? Who possibly could have foreseen that Bush's diplomatic danglings were fraudulent, and that his true intentions were to take the congressional resolution -- you know, the one with "military force" in the title -- and run with it militarily? Lordy, lord, the shock of it all, the betrayal, when he did just that a few months later. We were all hoodwinked.
Yes, you can say we were hoodwinked, as long as you discount the president's repeated and overt signals that war was imminent, no matter what; as long as you discount that numerous other and circumspect pols stood on the House and Senate floor and foretold of the ruse; as long as you discount that commentators and journalists and foreign policy experts far and wide were lamenting the insane road to war that Congress was foolishly opening.
Hoodwinked? A mischaracterization, indeed. But that's charitable. It's a deliberate distortion -- the popular Washington euphemism for "lie."
Some of your supporters now dismiss criticism of you as mere "Hillary-hating," which is a curious blend of both incisive truth and tactical diversion. Many, including some (and including myself) who greatly admired you prior to October 2002 do indeed "hate" what you became: an opportunistic jingoist when jingoism ruled, since going against the hard grain of hypernationalism at the time might spoil your later prospects for a White House run and make you appear "weak."
The irony, of course, is that it's now that you appear weak, having buckled under political pressure and supported an adventurism that virtually every thoughtful analyst said would cost the lives of thousands, drain the Treasury and destroy America's standing in the world.
But the "Hillary-hating" dismissal is also largely diversionary; a catchy alliteration designed to affiliate principled progressives with the mindless, Clinton-hating reactionaries of yesteryear.
It doesn't wash. For the key and operative word is "principled" -- enough is enough, and no longer should any pol be rewarded for pandering to the basest and bloodiest of human instincts. For too long the left has crooned "Give Peace A Chance" and chanted "Solidarity," only to then pat the heads of those leftie demagogues who nevertheless warily thought to themselves: Yeah, but what about the centrist vote?
Yesterday, Hillary, you re-projected a recently discovered appeal with appeal: "I spend my time out on the campaign trail -- it’s usually about what I can do for somebody else. I'm very 'other' directed -- I don’t like talking about myself.... For me, it’s always about, 'What can I do for you? How can I help you?'"
Here's a thought. Go back to New York and pray for forgiveness -- from those 16 families who needlessly lost loved ones last week, and from the next batch of families who are about to lose theirs this week, in part because you didn't want to appear "weak."