Clinton, McCain, and Obama on Iraq

Written by: Larry Furman on Feb 13, 2008 11:39 PM EST

Clinton, McCain, and Obama on Iraq

by L. J. Furman

Our presence in Iraq has become a military occupation. We are caught between the Sunni and the Shia, opposing sides with irreconcilable differences, feuds, grudges, and grievances, going back a thousand years or more. The government we have put in place in Iraq has agreed to give American oil companies control of the oil, however, the Sunni and the Shia are fighting for their turf. We are caught in the crossfire trying to establish and maintain order by occupying a hostile native population.

Our young and patriotic soldiers, fighting, they are told, for their country, are also caught between the cross hairs of the insurgents and mercenaries we are paying, who, wrapped in the banner of the American Flag, are fighting for their pocketbooks, killing and torturing "the enemy," and raping their colleagues.

What do the candidates for President say? Hillary Clinton first voted to support George W Bush, but now, finally, understands that we need to end this misadventure.

John McCain served honorably in Viet Nam, where he was captured and held as a POW for what must have seemed to be an eternity. Perhaps that's why he believes that we can win in Iraq, even if we are there for 100 years. Or perhaps he believes we have the right to occupy the region and develop the oil fields.

Barack Obama knew from the beginning that the best way to contain Saddam Houssein and Iraq was to do what George H. W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton did, in the words of the conservatives, to "starve the beast," with inspections and no-fly zones, rather than to throw lighter fluid, blazing wood, and hundreds of fire-crackers into warehouses full of dynamite.

Clinton and McCain criticize Obama's optimism and label him “Young” and "Inexperienced." Yet Clinton has recently come to realize what Barack knew from the beginning, and McCain still believes the myths of his youth half a century ago while he denies the realities of today.

If Barack is "young" and "inexperienced" while Clinton and McCain are "wise" we need a lot more youth and inexperience, and we don't need wisdom.
 

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