Myriad scandals now engulf the Clinton campaign. There is the destruction of her private email server and thousands of emails, her profiteering from the sale of American uranium to the Russians, and the huge donations to her sham foundation from foreign countries during her tenure as Secretary of State. But it’s also worth remembering that she, along with the entire Democrat hierarchy, lied to the world, ceaselessly charging Bush with waging an unjust war in Iraq because no WMDs were found there after its liberation.
The Bush-lied-people-died smear became a Democrat mantra repeated thousands of times over much of the last decade. The smear in which Hillary was an eager participant was totally made-up and contrived to blame Bush for taking the country to war under false pretenses or shoddy intelligence, depending on the teller. It was an unconscionable political lie because, during the Iraq war, when Americans were being killed on foreign soil, this lie not only gave aid and comfort to the enemy and demoralized our troops but it was issued also to absolve the congressional left from any commitment in the authorization of that war. It was a base political attack, a ruse endlessly conveyed by the Left and amplified by their allies in the mainstream media to bestow exoneration upon themselves from any culpability in what they came to characterize as Bush’s unjust, ill-advised war.
Yet the problem for Hillary, Biden, Kerry, and the entire Democrat hierarchy, is that they did advise taking out Saddam Hussein. Most of them even made public statements warning of Iraq’s WMD development until they later saw a chance to denigrate the war as a means to destroy the Bush presidency. Collectively, they first advocated for the war, they then voted for the war, and then publicly denigrated the war. Theirs was arguably a collective act of treason.
Hillary Defends Her Vote to Take Out Iraq
As Bret Stephens writes in his excellent book, America in Retreat, “And then there was Hillary Clinton, justifying her 2002 (Senate) vote in favor of the authorization to use military force in Iraq:”
“I believe the facts have brought us to this fateful vote are not in doubt. Sadam Hussein is a tyrant who has tortured and killed his own people,…He used chemical weapons on Iraqi Kurds and on Iranians, killing over 20,000 people…It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Sadam Hussein will continue to increase his capability to wage biological and chemical warfare and keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which, as we know all too well, affects American security. This much is undisputed.””
Just a sampling of other prominent Democrats who went on record, warning of Iraq’s WMDs:
Madeline Albright, Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State, “Saddam’s goal is achieving the lifting of sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs.”
Sandy Berger, Clinton’s National Security Advisor, “Saddam will rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and someday, some way, I am certain he will use that arsenal again, as he has 10 times since 1983.”
What the Obama/Clinton Vacuum has Wrought
In the world’s most unstable region which is the Middle East and North Africa, America was once the dominant force for stability, that is, until team Obama/Clinton/Kerry led our retreat. And within that vacuum they have created, nearly every one of our enemies and adversaries, Iran, ISIS, al Qaeda, China and Russia are taking territory and gaining the influence America has lost.
Obama’s “framework” agreement with the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, Iran, is the glittering jewel of a colossally bad foreign policy of which the now candidate Clinton was a principal architect.
Peter Brooks in his Daily Signal piece, How the Iran Deal Could Increase the Chance of Conflict, writes,
“The deal attempts to “freeze” Iran’s nuclear weapons program for a decade or so, but doesn’t roll it back; its vast nuclear infrastructure of reactors and enrichment facilities won’t be dismantled.
There was also no action on Iran’s long-range missile program which could be used to deliver a nuke to the United States. Indeed, this year Iran could test a space vehicle with ICBM range. ICBMs are designed to carry nukes, by the way.”
For Mrs. Clinton who proclaimed the existence of WMDs and then voted for the authorization of force, to charge that Bush lied the country into war is itself a lie but it’s worse. And if she was willing to lie about her role in the Iraq war, what other foreign policy threats or crisis will she lie about in the future? The Bush-lied smear is calumny of the worst kind. It does grievous damage to military moral and especially to those families who lost sons or daughters in Iraq. This combined with her vote to authorize military force, should make Hillary unfit for command and should disqualify her from ever becoming Commander in Chief.
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