Is Rudy Ready?

This past week Rudy Giuliani attacked Hillary Clinton in a campaign speech saying Hillary had no clear position on what to do in Iraq.  This is close to asking if you have stopped beating your wife (or in this case your husband).  The issue is not what Hillary would do but is far more about whether Rudy or Hillary or any of the other candidates would following the dead end political instincts that George W Bush did.  It is far more illustrative to know if Rudy will use the war weapon to keep the American voters in his pocket.

With respect to Hillary, I would be very surprised if she had a rock hard policy view on Iraq or Iran.  Like her husband Bill, Hillary should be expected to wait and read the political winds before signaling any decision or intended course of action.  This is maddening to be sure but it will be less costly than the Bush/Cheney crowd’s “act first, think later” attitude.  Hillary must resist getting sucked into this type of argument, at least at this time.  It is probably in her best interest to not KO Rudy now either.  Rather it will be wiser to let him hang around until Convention time and then dismiss him by allowing him to walk into one of his own traps.

We must remember that

1. This was a war of choice and the decision was made by Bush/Cheney, not the American people (or Congress that voted for authorization or the Press that covered it eyes and ears).

2. All the reasons provided by the Bush Administration for justifying the invasion of Iraq have been shown to be false.  The one premise that Saddaam was a bad person does not stand to reason.  Saddaam was only one of many bad people in the world and there is no widely accepted role for the US to police these situations.

3. The Bush/Cheney alliance has not yet accepted that it has really screwed up.  It is in their best interest to pretend that these discussions have not taken place.  To be sure after a modest amount of time, most Americans will forget.  We should ensure that this deep story not die out but rather be remembered though constant revival.

So in the end, I would recommend that any Hillary response be either (1) an attack on Judith Giuliani in order to crack her thin veneer of plastic vintage protection and put Rudy on the defensive, or (2) accept the message as delivered and then counter with a “so what”….  The real issues here are what got us into Iraq and why should we stay.  To be sure “if you broke it, then you own it”.  The issue for the next President is how to keep from repeating and to extricate the US from this failed policy and not to pursue it further.

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