Tone Deaf Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

Wow!!  Not only is Mike O'Hanlon attacking Barack Obama for 1)  Opposing the war, and 2) wanting to get our troops out of Iraq.  But he's doing it on the Op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal!!!  (Subscription Only)

This is like the trifecta.  If the Obama campaign had begged and pleaded it couldn't have come up with a better example of how Obama's Iraq position stands in contrast with those advisors and experts who supported the war in the first place.  Here are some of the best pieces:

First, he seems contemptuous of the motivations of those who supported the war. While showing proper respect for the heroic efforts of our troops, he displays little regard for the views of those many Americans who saw the case for war in the first place -- even as he has called for a more civil and respectful political debate.

This is unfortunate. Saddam Hussein was one of the worst and most dangerous dictators of the late 20th century. The basic proposition of unseating him was hardly an unconscionable idea, even if President Bush's approach to doing so was unilateralist, arrogant and careless. With our last image of Saddam a resigned figure heading for the gallows, it is easy to forget who this monster was.

He had used chemical weapons against his own defenseless people, as well as the armies of Iran; he violated 17 U.N. Security Council resolutions that demanded his verifiable disarmament; he had the blood of perhaps one million people on his hands; he transformed his country into what Iraqi dissident Kanan Makiya famously called the "republic of fear." (Saddam's behavior didn't improve when we tried the kind of high-level diplomacy Mr. Obama favors by sending envoys like Donald Rumsfeld and April Glaspie.)

Saddam's worst may have been behind him by 2003 -- but he was grooming his sadistic sons Uday and Qusay as successors with unknowable consequences. His WMD programs were in limbo, we now know. But before the war even German intelligence thought him only half a dozen years from a nuclear weapon.

Sanctions limited his funds for military programs, but the sanctions were eroding fast in the years before the invasion. Saddam's links to al Qaeda were overdramatized, but Saddam's own record of atrocities against his own people, Iranians and Kuwaitis, as well as his support for anti-Israeli terrorists, were heinous enough.

Yet Mr. Obama consistently accuses those who supported the war of political motivations -- and unsavory ones at that. On Dec. 27, for example, Mr. Obama said in Des Moines, Iowa, "You can't fall in line behind the conventional thinking on issues as profound as war and then offer yourself as the leader who is best prepared to chart a new and better course for America."

A unifying message doesn't have to unify 100% of the county.  It needs to unify the 70% of the country that can be unified.  And 70% of the country thinks the war was a bad idea.

Comments

[Dan Kervick]

Yet Mr. Obama consistently accuses those who supported the war of political motivations -- and unsavory ones at that. On Dec. 27, for example, Mr. Obama said in Des Moines, Iowa, "You can't fall in line behind the conventional thinking on issues as profound as war and then offer yourself as the leader who is best prepared to chart a new and better course for America."

Well one thing is clear. O'Hanlon hasn't coordinated its message with the Clinton campaign. The campaign is now desperately trying to portray it's candidate as someone who did not really support the war, and who "would never have taken us to war in Iraq" herself, but who for some reason fell in line behind both the authorization resolution and the actual invasion in March, 2003, and subsequently criticized only aspects of the handling of the war but not the decision to go to war.

So which Clinton is it? The O'Hanlon Clinton who actually supported the war, or the Clinton Clinton who opposed the war in her heart but never spoke up? Sincere war hawk or weak leader? I'll believe either one.

[md]

Someone please tell Mike we've been down that road before and seemingly nobody but him is intent on revisiting the arguments of late 2002/early 2003 that got us into such a mess.

[Zathras]

As someone who has made his own views of the Iraq commitment clear enough here, let me point out two things. First, O'Hanlon makes a couple of points that might be argued with, but says nothing here that isn't basically true. Second, Sen. Obama does mostly talk about himself and his opponents -- arguing that he was right in 2002 and they were wrong -- as opposed to talking about what we ought to do now.

I appreciate the political utility of this in Democratic primaries, but should Obama actually become President of the United States it is unlikely that refighting the arguments of 2002 will do him, or us, very much good.

[Dan Kervick]

Well one thing is clear. O'Hanlon hasn't coordinated its message with the Clinton campaign. As Matt noted yesterday, the campaign is now desperately trying to portray it's candidate as someone who did not really support the war, and who "would never have taken us to war in Iraq" herself, but who for some reason fell in line behind both the authorization resolution and the actual invasion in March, 2003, and subsequently criticized only aspects of the handling of the war but not the decision to go to war.

So which Clinton is it? The O'Hanlon Clinton who actually supported the war, or the Clinton Clinton who opposed the war in her heart but never spoke up? Sincere war hawk or weak leader? I'll believe either one.

[Dan Kervick]

Sorry about the double post.

[whoframedrudy]

The problem for Obama is not his speech in 2002. It's the growing belief that 'the surge has worked', 'the Dems were wrong about the surge,' 'Iran backed down on nukes/Al Queada is afraid to attack us because we took Iraq', as well as the implicit subtext of Obama's 'dream' campaign -- we don't have to worry about terrorism anymore (i.e., Bush won the WOT). All of which could translate into a redemption of George Bush and the Repubs by election time. (Note, I don't hold any of these views).

Of course, Obama has known this all along, which is why he never voted to cut off funding and why he ducked the Kyl-Lieberman vote (to have it both ways with pro-Israeli hawks and the anti-war left). Make fun of Hanlon, but he's cueing the Repub one-two punch - help Obama get rid of hawk Hillary, then McCain or Rudy takes down a soft Obama who was wrong about Iraq after all.

Don't forget, a majority of Americans were 'for the war before they were against it.' They may yet come full circle. Hope is nice, but victory is sweeter.

I don't buy the 'surge is working' bs. But I'm a Democrat who would vote for McCain over Obama any day. If it's Rudy or Huckabee, I'll vote for Mike Bloomberg.

[David]

Obama didn't "duck" the Kyl/Lieberman vote. He was away when it came up unexpectedly, and didn't rush back because his vote would make no difference. He certainly spoke clearly against it and made everyone know that he would have voted against it if he had been there. I don't think that made the "pro-Israel hawks" any happier with him.

[Peace]

O'Hanlon and whoframedrudy maybe angry that the Democrats are rejecting them and their Republican foreign policy agenda which relies soley upon hard military power. By electing Obama, America will have increase its soft power by electing someone whose roots are from the Third World unlike Europe which is having a terrible time assimilating its immigrant population.

[ohanlon is a moron]

I wonder why Saddam didn't behave better after Donny Rumsfeld sold him those chemical weapons?

I wonder why Saddam didn't behave better after April Glaspie green lighted his invasion of Kuwait by saying the US didn't care?

What a writer!

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