While Bernie Sanders may be tired of hearing about Hillary Clinton’s “damn emails,” the recent scandals that have resulted from her Capitol Hill hearings, combined with the virtually non-existent investigation into the State Department funding of terrorist organizations have gone only a short distance in demonstrating the lengths to which Hillary Clinton has acted as the supporter and executioner of warfare since the first day she assumed any national position in government.
In addition to her history regarding the Syrian and Libyan crises, it should never be forgotten that Hillary Clinton has supported virtually every military conflict launched during and since her husband’s own disastrous tenure as President.
Remember, in 2002-2003, Hillary Clinton not only supported the push for war in Iraq, she voted for the invasion. In fact, she was fervent in her support for the war, delivering impassioned speeches on the Senate floor in order to convince members of Congress who might have been on the fence, as well as the general American population and a handful of Democrats and liberals who valued her opinion on the topic, that war was the right choice. Indeed, Hillary’s speech promoting war in Iraq rivaled only George W. Bush who was campaigning night and day on American television.
I believe the facts that have brought us to this fateful vote are not in doubt. Saddam Hussein is a tyrant who has tortured and killed his own people, even his own family members, to maintain his iron grip on power. He used chemical weapons on Iraqi Kurds and on Iranians, killing over 20,000 people.
Clinton then began to detail not only why she believed the United States should begin its invasion, but also insinuated that the operation, if the first Gulf war was anything to go by, would not result in a long drawn out conflict but a war more like the first. Although Clinton did not state this directly, the implication was that it was time go in and finish the job. It was also insinuated that much of the work was already done.
“In 1991, Saddam Hussein invaded and occupied Kuwait, losing the support of the United States. The first President Bush assembled a global coalition, including many Arab states, and threw Saddam out after 43 days of bombing and a hundred hours of ground operations,” she said.
Clinton stated that, after the first Gulf war, “the United Nations imposed a number of requirements on Iraq, among them disarmament of all weapons of mass destruction, stocks used to make such weapons, and laboratories necessary to do the work.”
