Third war's the charm

Our government is founded upon the intelligence of the people. I for one do not despair of the republic. I have great confidence in the virtue of the great majority of the people, and I cannot fear the result. Andrew Jackson


I belong to an organization that has a truism: "Insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results." And this is the line that came to mind when I read this morning that the Dems have decided it's not a good idea to limit Bush's ability to go to war with Iran. To be more specific, the House is contemplating an appropriations bill that would hemorage another 100 billion dollars into the war effort. The bill would require troops to be out of Iraq in 18 months, which of course, the executive branch finds appalling.

I tell you the whole thing makes me sick and angry. And to think I was actually contemplating a blog entry this week on Hillary being wrongly maligned for her stance on the war. [The NYT has a side-by-side comparison of the candidates vis-a-vis the war, and their Hilary quote:
VOTED YES IN 2002, NOW OPPOSED

If I had been President in October of 2002, I would have never asked for authority to divert our attention from Afghanistan to Iraq, and I certainly would never have started this war.

got me curious what exactly she did have to say in 2002 when she voted yes on HJ Res 114.

Salon had an article last month lambasting her for her refusal to admit she was wrong on her initial support of the war, and rather than finding it convincing it actually made me concede that Clinton has been more consistent on her war position than I initially granted her. In her speech on the resolution she says:

...I will take the president at his word that he will try hard to pass a U.N. resolution and will seek to avoid war, if at all possible....I urge the president to spare no effort to secure a clear, unambiguous demand by the United Nations for unlimited inspections ... A vote for [the resolution] is not a vote to rush to war; it is a vote that puts awesome responsibility in the hands of our president and we say to him: Use these powers wisely and as a last resort.

Which brings us to the issue of Iran and the Democrats decision to give Bush a blank check to go to war. Hell-oooh??? It revolts me that we're not even talking anymore about the US's dogged refusal to learn from history. Now we're talking about some sort of mass amnesia regarding five years ago. Maybe the Senators could take the memento approach and start tattooing important facts on their forearms ("Don't give president authority to go to war!")

This is from the AP article:

Public opinion has swung the way of Democrats on the issue of the war. More than six in 10 Americans think the conflict was a mistake--the largest number yet found in AP-Ipsos polling.

But Democrats have struggled to find a compromise that can satisfy both liberals who oppose any funding for the military effort and conservatives who do not want to unduly restrict the commander in chief.

Why is it that Republicans are the only ones who seem to have figured out that public opinion will follow them if they lead? Why are the Democrats so retarded???

I really want to believe in democracy. I really do.

Sigh.