OOPS.. Bubba Did it AGAIN!!!

STEPHANOPOULOS: Interesting advice.



Let's talk Iraq for a second. We just had one of the bloodiest weeks of the war. I know you've said that we have to have a strategy for victory and see this through to victory, but a lot of Democrats and also some Republicans like Chuck Hagel look at the situation now and say you know what? We don't have that strategy. We're not winning.



CLINTON: We don't.



STEPHANOPOULOS: We don't have a strategy for victory?



CLINTON: Well, if we do, it's not working right now, at least. But I know what they say.



Let me take a step back a little bit. I did not favor what was done. I did favor the Congress giving the president the power to use force, because when he asked for it in his speech in Cincinnati, he basically made the argument I've made many times, which is Saddam Hussein never did anything he wasn't forced to do, so he needed to know that there would be consequences if he didn't fully comply with the U.N. inspections.



But the administration, then, decided to launch this invasion virtually alone and before the U.N. inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were any weapons of mass destruction there. So I thought that diverted our attention from Iraq and … al Qaeda and undermined the support that we might have had.



Now, but what's done is done. Now, the question is, after 58 percent of those people voted, after there has been a heroic but so far unsuccessful effort to put together a constitution that everybody can buy off on, that the world would be better off if this enterprise did not fail and if the 58 percent of Iraqis who believed in it were given the chance to govern themselves in a stable and secure environment. I also think they will want us to leave as soon as they can defend themselves.



So the stated strategy of trying to develop the security and police forces to the point where they can defend themselves I think is the correct strategy. The problem is we may not have, in the short run, enough troops to do that.



STEPHANOPOULOS: Would you put more troops in now?



CLINTON: I don't know if they can, and I think it's even more important not to let Afghanistan fail, even more important. You know, you've got civilian contractors moving out of Afghanistan. We had a record week of casualties there last week. Every time we put a soldier in Afghanistan, we get a soldier from NATO.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So we're losing in Afghanistan, at risk of losing in Iraq. What do we do right now? What should the new strategy be?



CLINTON: Well as I said, I don't know, because I'm not president, I don't know what his military options are. I don't know how many troops he's got where. But I know my view is if there is a reasonable chance that this constitutional process can be completed and that it will not be rejected under the terms that govern the vote, once that happens, I think that will give another boost to the civilian government. Then, I think that we will know how long it takes to train enough and equip enough forces that they ought to be able to defend themselves. When that happens, I think we can begin drawing down our presence.


But my problem with setting a date certain for withdrawal now is I always assumed that whoever I was competing against was smart. And suppose you were running the Iraqi insurgency, and I know you, and I know how smart you are. If I told you I was going to leave in six months, 12 months, or 18 months, and you could survive that long, there's no way in the wide world you would join the political process.



Now, let's look at the other thing: When the IRA says they're going to give up arms, and they want the international body to observe the blowup, and they want the representative of the Catholics and Church of England, the Protestants to observe the blowup, what does that say? They say they've decided they've got more to gain from the political process than from continuing the conflict.



When 13,000 armed guerrillas and paramilitaries in Colombia give up their weapons and rejoin civil society, and President Uribe, who's been so tough on them, offers them a chance to reconcile, why are they doing that? Because they know they're not going to win anymore, and they want to be part of a political process. [In Rwanda,] when the Hutu soldiers came home in response to President Kigami's welcome and rejoined civil society and did their community atonement work, why did they do that? Because they knew they couldn't win anymore.



So the reason I don't want to see an announcement made is I see no reasonable prospect that this insurgency can be transformed into a political process, and the Sunnis who are alienated will come back if they know all they have to do is wait. It may not work. I've never known whether it would work. All I know is a majority of the Iraqis would like it to work. We'd be better off, and the Middle East would be better off if it did work.



A lot of good Americans have given their lives; thousands of others have been horribly wounded. So I have been in a position where I wanted the strategy to work. Whether it will or not, I don't know. But the only thing I would sacrifice it to is if I thought we were going to lose in Afghanistan. We cannot lose in Afghanistan. We cannot let the Taliban come back. We cannot let Karzai fail. We cannot relax our efforts to try to keep undermining al Qaeda, because that's still by far a bigger threat to our security.



STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, we're just about out of time. What's the Democratic bumper sticker in 2008?



CLINTON: Let's get the country back together, move the country forward again.



STEPHANOPOULOS: Not buy one, get one free?



CLINTON: No, get the country back together, move the country forward again. I have no idea what's going to happen. My family has an election in 2006, and I don't want to look past it. You know, I always say if you look past the next election, you may not get past the next election.



The country in 2008, and I think in 2006, will be in a desperate mood to come together and move forward. I think they're going to reject ideological solutions that are not fact-based, and I think they're going to want a government that works.



STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. President, thank you very much.



CLINTON: Thanks.


http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1136801&page=3
 
I hate it when people say the democratic process is failing in Iraq because they haven't agreed to a constitution yet. Do you think WE in the U.S. would be able to agree on a new constitution these days if we had to draft one? Just because we couldn't would that mean we aren't a functioning democracy?
You're allowed to disagree and even halt legislation, that IS the very process of a working democracy, when they start forcing their way with guns, thats when its not.

:piss2: :terror:
 
I love how he uses the term "virtualy alone" in regards to our invasion of Iraq. I guess the UK isn't a real country. I think saying we had a coalition of 40+ countries is a little absurd when most did little more than send some supplies or 15 troops, but the UK was with us all the way.
 
I love how he uses the term "virtualy alone" in regards to our invasion of Iraq. I guess the UK isn't a real country. I think saying we had a coalition of 40+ countries is a little absurd when most did little more than send some supplies or 15 troops, but the UK was with us all the way.

Most of the countries in the "coalition of the willing" did not send troops. We sent 300,000 and the next country on the list, the UK, sent only 45,000 and almost none of the British subjects supported this war. We did go in virtually alone.
Coalition of the Willing
 
Hagbard Celine said:
Most of the countries in the "coalition of the willing" did not send troops. We sent 300,000 and the next country on the list, the UK, sent only 45,000 and almost none of the British subjects supported this war. We did go in virtually alone.
Coalition of the Willing
US, UK, Japan, AU, SP-when they had a decent leader, IT, PO are those that gave troops. Check out military #'s, $ country has, etc., before doing those kinds of comparisons.
 

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