Obama and Clinton back Iraq Pullout Deadline
May 18, 2007
Wow.
It takes a lot for most politicians to be explicit about something. Anything. These two are definitely no exception. The strange similarities between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton’s stances on Iraq continue, but they took a turn for the better yesterday. Instead of dancing around the idea of having a firm date for US troop withdrawal like they did in the past, both of them voted yesterday to set a 31 March 2008 for US troops to be out of Iraq. While it is sad that these two candidates are some of the last to have some Iraq sense knocked into them, this is actually a good sign for anti-occupation efforts.
From the article:
more than half the Senate’s Democrats supported the move, a marked change from last summer when only a dozen members of the rank and file backed a troop withdrawal deadline.
By now you see that Clinton and Obama where not part of that dozen that backed the troop withdrawal last year. Hmmmmmmm… I wonder what has changed between last summer and today? Oh yeah, both of them are now officially running for President!
It’s stuff like this that makes people not like politicians. Did the situation in Iraq change between last summer and yesterday? No. Did American public opinion change in terms of supporting a troop withdrawal sooner rather than later? Yes, it got stronger. What does that spell? A not-so-genuine change of heart for Clinton, Obama, and the other Democrats that flipped to all of a sudden liking a deadline.
This is good for the anti-Iraq occupation movement because it means that baby steps are being taken towards concrete governmental action here. While the measure did not pass, it is prayerfully getting us closer to getting people home where they belong.
By the way, I really wish Russ Feingold, the Senator from Wisconsin who sponsored the bill that Hilary and Barack like now, was running for President. He is probably the only Democrat in the Senate with a shred of integrity on Iraq (voted against it), the “war” on terror (fighting to hold the Executive branch accountable for warrantless wiretapping), the Patriot Act (only Senator to actually read it, voted against it), etc.
One Love. One II.
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