I've seen a lot of puff pieces about Hillary's excuses and justifications for her IWR vote.

[vintx]

Thought I'd post this to #correcttherecord

The 5 Worst Excuses for Hillary Clinton’s Vote To Invade Iraq
Clinton supporters want Democratic voters to forgive their candidate’s support for the most disastrous foreign policy decision in decades. They shouldn’t.

1. “Hillary Clinton’s vote wasn’t for war, but simply to pressure Saddam Hussein to allow UN weapons inspectors back into Iraq.”
At the time of vote, Saddam Hussein had already agreed in principle to a return of the weapons inspectors. His government was negotiating with the United Nations Monitoring and Verification Commission on the details, which were formally institutionalized a few weeks later. (Indeed, it would have been resolved earlier had the United States not repeatedly postponed a UN Security Council resolution in the hopes of inserting language that would have allowed Washington to unilaterally interpret the level of compliance.)

Furthermore, if then-Senator Clinton’s desire was simply to push Saddam into complying with the inspection process, she wouldn’t have voted against the substitute Levin amendment, which would have also granted President Bush authority to use force, but only if Iraq defied subsequent UN demands regarding the inspections process. Instead, Clinton voted for a Republican-sponsored resolution to give Bush the authority to invade Iraq at the time and circumstances of his own choosing.

In fact, unfettered large-scale weapons inspections had been going on in Iraq for nearly four months at the time the Bush administration launched the March 2003 invasion. Despite the UN weapons inspectors having not found any evidence of WMDs or active WMD programs after months of searching, Clinton made clear that the United States should invade Iraq anyway. Indeed, she asserted that even though Saddam was in full compliance with the UN Security Council, he nevertheless needed to resign as president, leave the country, and allow U.S. troops to occupy the country. “The president gave Saddam Hussein one last chance to avoid war,” Clinton said in a statement, “and the world hopes that Saddam Hussein will finally hear this ultimatum, understand the severity of those words, and act accordingly.”

When Saddam refused to resign and the Bush administration launched the invasion, Clinton went on record calling for “unequivocal support” for Bush’s “firm leadership and decisive action” as “part of the ongoing Global War on Terrorism.” She insisted that Iraq was somehow still “in material breach of the relevant United Nations resolutions” and, despite the fact that weapons inspectors had produced evidence to the contrary, claimed the invasion was necessary to “neutralize Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.”

(more at link)

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18813/the-five-lamest-excuses-for-hillary-clintons-vote-to-invade-iraq

[sadoldgirl]

1. Other Dems voted the same way, BUT I don't

recall any of them giving a 19 min. speech to justify
it in almost Bush vocabulary.

[djean111]

5. Yep. Hillary shilled for it. Enthusiastically.

Can't be 'splained away.

[bahrbearian]

49. She didn't want too. Bush gave NY 20 billion so she had too. And NY wanted that war...

I read that here.

[Buzz Clik]

2. I did not realize until this moment that the Bernie Brigade takes umbrage with HRC's vote on Iraq.

[vintx]

3. Most of the people on this site did, at the time.

Did you? OR did you defend those that voted yes, at the time?

[Buzz Clik]

8. No, I hated that she voted for it. And I talked about it for awhile.

And then I got over it. Way before the Obama/Hillary 2008 primary -- I supported Obama and never mentioned it.

But you people, for the love of God, never shut up about it.

[vintx]

10. Do you think the people will ever "shut up" about it? You DO know that millions died, right?

Do you expect people to "shut up" about her collusion with Blumenthal wrt Libya?

[Buzz Clik]

12. Know this:

1. I recognize that you will never stop talking about that single vote, mostly because it is one of only three issues that separate HRC and BS
   
2. I will never stop jumping down your throat about your bizarre obsession.

[vintx]

16. Millions died. That's a very big fucking difference. How many dead in Libya, so far,

do you think?

I'm glad I will never be able to write these differences off as trivial.

[Buzz Clik]

18. You are aware that her vote DID NOT AUTHORIZE THE WAR, right?

Or are you happy to wallow obsessively in your pious ignorance.

Have the last word.

[dflprincess]

34. She knew damn well that's what she was voting for.

She did it because she thought it would make her look tough and was politically expedient to vote that way.

And she'd do it again if she thought it would help her career - regardless of how many people it killed.

[choie]

35. You're the one who's ignorant

she authorized Bush to use force if Hussein didn't follow our orders. How come so many average Americans knew Bush was lying and that the intelligence was a farce, but Clinton didn't. You can call us all the names you want and you can excuse her with your lame reasoning, but the truth is her vote not only illustrated her horrible judgement, but, and this is even more egregious, her willingness to do so for the sake of political gain.

[BreakfastClub]

48. No matter how much common sense is talked about this long ago vote,

those who hate Hillary just can't hear it. There's no point in this relentless attack about a vote that happened well over 10 years ago and made no damn difference in whether there would be a war or not. There are no "excuses." She did what she thought was the right thing with the information she was given. That's not good enough for those like you. You act like she singlehandedly went to war and murdered people with her bare hands. It is ludicrous, and that leads me to question the real reason why these feelings are so strong and why common sense can't be employed by those of you who chronically harp on this issue. It's pretty obvious that you have displaced anger and must put it somewhere, and Hillary is a good target.

Politics is full of people displacing their hidden anger and resentments toward a parent, their own failings, whatever, onto a political candidate. Because Hillary is one of the few women in such a high-profile position, she is always going to get the majority of that displacement from people who have issues with a woman in their lives (usually their mothers). It makes perfect sense that Hillary would be held to ridiculous standards and raked over the coals over everything and anything when you consider the defense mechanism of displacement and how common it is in politics. It makes people feel (temporarily) good to displace their anger onto a safe person. And Hillary is that person for many, many people.

Good luck overcoming it.

[reformist2]

24. You say we have a "bizarre obsession" with votes on criminal wars? Wow.

[Buzz Clik]

26. She did not vote to authorize a war. Look it up ... or just keep obsessing over your misconception.

[choie]

11. Maybe we care that the blood of over

a million people is on our hands ..I guess you don't.

[Buzz Clik]

15. Get over yourself.

[choie]

25. Struck a nerve, huh?

[Buzz Clik]

31. Not at all, but my patience has worn thin with the incredible arrogance accompanying your ignorance.

All libs bled over that goddamned war. We all hated Bush for starting the thing -- overriding the vote in Congress that did not provide authorization for the war. Hillary voted for that limited bill, and that sucks. But, she didn't vote to authorize a war.

And you people -- who are intentionally misrepresenting the authorization -- then go on to pretend that only you felt any pain over the death and destruction.

Get over yourself.

[choie]

36. Get over yourself...

All the Dems who supported Bush with that vote are culpable. Nothing you say will change that.

[reformist2]

27. This is the unprovoked rudeness that loses elections.

[Buzz Clik]

28. Just returning fire. If you can't take it, don't dish it out.

We've been putting up with months of this lying about her vote, and we were thrown out of here in droves if we fought back. Now, you can't throw us out and you have to hear the truth without hiding it.

It sucks, doesn't it?

SHE DIDN'T VOTE FOR A WAR! LOOK IT UP!

[CorkySt.Clair]

32. I bet you assigned most of the blame where it belonged, too

That is of course square in the lap of W. A lot of Berners seem to forget that very critical fact, or willfully ignore it.

[Buzz Clik]

33. THIS ===> "willfully ignore it."

They know better. They are making political hay.

[choie]

38. That's fucking bullshit

Bush and Cheney share the greatest blame - they are war criminals. Clinton and her ilk aided and abetted.

[Buzz Clik]

39. Read the language they authorized. Educate yourself.

[choie]

40. You educate yourself..

You probably think her "we came, we saw, he died" was oh so cute. It wasn't - it showed exactly who she is - a goddamn warmonger.

[leftinportland]

41. Because the vote clearly illustrates,

for me, who she really is.

[actslikeacarrot]

4. Kick. N/T

[RobertEarl]

6. Big mistake

Both Kerry and Hillary lost their chance at POTUS because they voted to allow Bush to invade Iraq. Kerry has tried to make up for that mistake, H keeps on repeating the same 'war is the answer' idea.

[vintx]

7. "It's time for the United States to start thinking of Iraq as a business opportunity." - HRC

War is good for business.

[RobertEarl]

9. Her and Cheney both

And they have both gotten rich as hell since that vote.

[vintx]

19. It explains how she and Bill can be so chummy with the Kissingers.

Sickening, all of it.

[RobertEarl]

22. Trump knows it

Trump has already pointed out how the people were lied to about Iraq.

He is not going to shy away from hammering H for her vote. She lost to Obama because of that vote. Trump know this. He also knows Bernie is the only clean D running.

[840high]

42. As well as their friends. $$$$$

[Gwhittey]

20. Kinda

But I think more to do with Karl Rove Swiftboat army. That tactic was very effective. Just ask Hillary she used a similar thing in SC to make it seemed Sanders was racist because she was worried about his Civil Rights activism in 1960s might give him a edge in up coming Black voting blocks. And dam did it work. One lying new reporter and a couple lying African american congress Clinton surrogates was all it took to change tone down here with other African Americans in SC to talk about how Sanders does not like black people. It is impossible trying to change peoples mind after Lewis said his lie.

[RobertEarl]

23. That swiftboat

It came on the heels of Kerry flip-flopping on the war. "He was for it before he was against it".

At the time the war was still cranking. Kerry didn't lose R votes, but he did lose D and Indies' votes because of his Iraq vote.

Had he voted NO, he would have won in 2004. People wanted a clear anti-war candidate to support. There was not one.

[msongs]

13. meanwhile there's bernie voting to spend billions on the MIC every year. and look what he gets in

return: (insert pic of F 35 here)

[Octafish]

14. It's been ''Money trumps peace'' since the Ayatollah gave Reagan a major for the Hostages.

Jimmy Carter was done in by the Safari Club -- the friends of Bush and Casey.

From...

The State, the Deep State, and the Wall Street Overworld

By Prof Peter Dale Scott
Global Research, March 10, 2014
The Asia-Pacific Journal, Volume 12, Issue 10, No. 5

EXCERPT...

The Safari Club Milieu: George H.W. Bush, Theodore Shackley, and BCCI

The usual account of this super-agency’s origin is that it was

the brainchild of Count Alexandre de Marenches, the debonair and mustachioed chief of France’s CIA. The SDECE (Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage)…. Worried by Soviet and Cuban advances in postcolonial Africa, and by America’s post-Watergate paralysis in the field of undercover activity, the swashbuckling Marenches had come to Turki’s father, King Faisal, with a proposition…. [By 1979] Somali president Siad Barre had been bribed out of Soviet embrace by $75 million worth of Egyptian arms (paid for… by Saudi Arabia)….95

Joseph Trento adds that “The Safari Club needed a network of banks to finance its intelligence operations,… With the official blessing of George Bush as the head of the CIA, Adham transformed… the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), into a worldwide money-laundering machine.”.96

Trento claims also that the Safari Club then was able to work with some of the controversial CIA operators who were then forced out of the CIA by Turner, and that this was coordinated by perhaps the most controversial of them all: Theodore Shackley.

Shackley, who still had ambitions to become DCI, believed that without his many sources and operatives like [Edwin] Wilson, the Safari Club—operating with [former DCI Richard] Helms in charge in Tehran—would be ineffective. … Unless Shackley took direct action to complete the privatization of intelligence operations soon, the Safari Club would not have a conduit to [CIA] resources. The solution: create a totally private intelligence network using CIA assets until President Carter could be replaced.97

Kevin Phillips has suggested that Bush on leaving the CIA had dealings with the bank most closely allied with Safari Club operations: the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). In Phillips’ words,

[font color="green"]After leaving the CIA in January 1977, Bush became chairman of the executive committee of First International Bancshares and its British subsidiary, where, according to journalists Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin in their 1992 book ‘False Profits’ [p. 345], Bush ‘traveled on the bank’s behalf and sometimes marketed to international banks in London, including several Middle Eastern institutions.[/font color]

Joseph Trento adds that through the London branch of this bank, which Bush chaired, “Adham’s petrodollars and BCCI money flowed for a variety of intelligence operations”99

It is clear moreover that BCCI operations, like Khashoggi’s before them, were marked by the ability to deal behind the scenes with both the Arab countries and also Israel.100

[font color="green"]It is clear that for years the American deep state in Washington was both involved with and protected BCCI. Acting CIA director Richard Kerr acknowledged to a Senate Committee “that the CIA had also used BCCI for certain intelligence-gathering operations.”101[/font color]

[font color="red"]Later, a congressional inquiry showed that for more than ten years preceding the BCCI collapse in the summer of 1991, the FBI, the DEA, the CIA, the Customs Service, and the Department of Justice all failed to act on hundreds of tips about the illegalities of BCCI’s international activities.102[/font color]

Far less clear is the attitude taken by Wall Street banks towards the miscreant BCCI. The Senate report on BCCI charged however that the Bank of England “had withheld information about BCCI’s frauds from public knowledge for 15 months before closing the bank.”103

CONTINUED...

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-state-the-deep-state-and-the-wall-street-overworld/5372843

36 years of non-stop wars without end for profits without cease. It's time for peace.

[vintx]

17. I agree it is time for peace. Long past time. But business opportunities abound

and some seem willing to support DINOs who think nothing of exploiting those opportunities.

[Gwhittey]

21. It's time for peace.

Only if HRC does not get the White House.

[Gomez163]

29. WHO CARES? THE PRIMARY IS OVER BERNIE LOST. GIVE IT UP.

[Lil Missy]

30. IW was a mistake - I knew it at the time. It was bush/cheney's war, not Hillary's.

I've moved on.

[amborin]

37. Her Regime Change in Libya was just as bad; she learned nothing from Iraq

[vintx]

45. Oh I disagree. I think she learned just how much $$$$ there is to be made. nt

[uponit7771]

43. Sanders CFMA vote is worse

[choie]

44. Perpetuating another lie by the

Clinton campaign. You know damn we that there was a reason he voted for that legislation and that vote didn't begin the process of killing over a million people.

[uponit7771]

46. OK then, we agree he voted for the CFMA but he gives no grace on votes and he gets none either...

... since Clinton can't do nuance neither can Sanders.

He voted for the CFMA, which was a major part in over leveraging which crashed the worlds economies.

Clinton didn't kill a million people

[Sheepshank]

47. What is your point

Bernie supporters have brought up this same topic 5 times a day for months. She is most likely to be our nominee. What is the point of you continued posts, bashing decisions she has already admitted was a mistake?